The top advisor’s salary sparked fury yesterday both inside and outside government, as it was revealed she’s on more than the Prime Minister.
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The news that Sue Gray accepted a big pay rise and is now out-earning the Prime Minister has sparked a civil war among fellow Labour advisors, one of whom has now threatened to ‘pack up and go home’.
News broke yesterday that Ms Gray is on a whopping £170,000, £3,000 more than Sir Keir Starmer.
It’s a big pay rise from her Conservative predecessor Liam Booth-Smith, who took home between £140,000 and £145,000.
While the news sparked fury among the general public, it came as a lightning bolt to fellow Labour Party advisors in Government, many of whom took pay cuts when they entered government, compared to both their previous Labour Party salaries and the salaries of their Tory advisor predecessors.
The special advisor (Spad) contracts already risked a breakdown in relations between No10, but yesterday’s news about Sue Gray lit the tinderbox.
Ms Gray’s pay has sparked outrage among Labour advisors (Image: PA)
One Labour source briefed a journalist: “Sue Gray is the only pensioner to do well under this Labour government.”
Ms Gray was also accused of actively turning down a pay cut, being warned it would cause a major scandal.
A Labour advisor has now told The Times: “The story makes me want to pack up and go home.”
“The rest of us Spads have been in the trenches fighting for four years, then she turned up. She’s fighting with friends she’s not made yet.
“Sue was a senior civil servant. She would know how much the PM makes, so to take a salary of that amount shows an extraordinary lack of political nous.
“Why make enemies of the people who are effectively the glue that allows the leaders in government to work in the best way they can do?”
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Sue Gray is Sir Keir’s right-hand woman (Image: Getty)
Fellow Government sources accused Ms Gray of showing “stunning arrogance” and has “only herself to blame”.
Another said: “This story is obviously wildly unhelpful, but it’s not remotely surprising given the level of anger at this situation.”
The Conservatives have now set out 10 questions that Sir Keir must answer about Ms Gray, including whether or not she was involved in setting her own salary.
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While the Cabinet Office has said she did not make decisions about her own pay, she did sit on a four-person “special advisors board” that signed off the pay band changes for advisors, including introducing a new £180,000 ceiling.
Ms Gray’s salary was kept secret for weeks, but the new highest pay band raised eyebrows among Spads.
One told the Times: “We began to question, ‘Why did they set that limit there? Who is being paid so much?”
“Sue is seen as the driver behind a clampdown on both overall Spad numbers and pay, so there was a great deal of surprise when it emerged she was setting records for her own pay.”
