Rats in a Sack, Part One

As I started this article more and more leaks were appearing so it began to get more and more jumbled. To save even more embarrassment it is going to be divided into two parts. The dividing line will be the Labour Conference though the brothers and sisters refer to it as Conference as though it were a living breathing being. I hope part two will contain the aftermath of what looks like a gigantic power struggle. There have been predictions that both main protagonists will either leave or get the old heave ho. Time will tell.

Cabinet Ministers rally round the Chief of Staff as Keir Starmer insists he is in control of No. 10. So says the headline in the Grauniad. Surely if he is in control he doesn’t need to say it, the man is an imbecile in his own way. The Chief of Staff is of course Sue Gray. These ministers say the briefing against her is appalling and risks undermining the whole government. If you ask me, this is exactly the kind of thing Sue Gray would be putting out.

As one observer has stated this is more like an end of regime scenario rather than one that is less than 20 weeks in office. It is all distinctly iffy.

The briefings so far have been about her pay and her acrimonious relationships with senior colleagues. Apparently Gray just wants to get on with her job and again, this is exactly the kind of thing she would say. I suggest the most recent leaks and briefings have come from the lady herself.

The salary part is interesting. Other Labour advisers, or SpAds as the other place calls them, are particularly incensed with her because they feel she had micro-managed their pay and set rates lower than the Tories had. The unwritten part of this is they think she screwed them over so she could get more herself. The Tories paid a 140 to 145k salary range to their top advisers, Ms Gray is on about £170,000 (over £14,000 a month before tax).

Morgan McSweeney, Keith’s closest political aide and his strategy guru is not best pleased with Ms Gray. All reports are that she controls access to Keith and keeps him on a very tight rein. Maybe Morgan should get a box at Arsenal where he may just bump into his boss.

Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary (remember GoD, or Gus O’Donnell) is said to be about to resign next month amid growing tensions with la Gray. Case and Gray’s relationship has been on the rocks for many years. The day before this report the BBC said that Mr Case had been called in to deal with the hostile briefing against Ms Gray. The lady in question was said to be upset and not taking it well, again according to the BBC.  Maybe jacking his job in is his way of dealing with it but Keith’s team reckon Mr Case is behind the leaks he is supposed to be investigating. This guy is better than Kim Philby was.

Critics of Sue Gray are now saying she will resign after the conference, can’t see that, she seems to like the power and the money too much. At the start of the conference there are reports that Sue Gray has been withholding papers from Keith and his aides are seeking advice from former aides to Theresa May of all people. The mind is boggling at light speed.

Again the BBC quoted a source as saying she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than Keith, she declined.

Boris’s former Director of Communications, Guto Harri, claims Sue Gray used to be known as “psycho Sue”. The Tories should be making more of all this but they are just as useless in opposition as they were in government unless they are following Napoleon’s instruction of don’t interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake but I feel that stirring it up a bit would not go amiss.

The Hackney Abacus added her two penn’orth, or was it three – it’s so hard to keep track of numbers, anyway she said she had never had a nice chat with Keith. Well neither have I but I don’t go round boasting about it., She said Keith treated her like a non-person after Tory donor Frank Hester’s ill-judged remarks. Non-person sounds very 1984ish.

Back in July accusation were made against Sue Gray that she subverted cabinet ministers to secure a £310 million gummint bailout for rebuilding a derelict Belfast stadium to be used for Euro 2028. Sue used to have a bar in Newry and was either spying on the IRA or hand in glove with them, perm one from two or perhaps both.

There will be more to come in the very near future as we go through conference season.

Keith’s reaction to all this briefing against various members of his advisers is to ….. find the leaker. Now rumoured to be Simon Case; who knows who is going to carry the can. I reckon they are all jockeying for position and like true lefties, they all hate each other.

As this story started bubbling over, Keith admitted to accepting over £100k of goodies, much of it from Lord Alli while denying he is “King of the Freebies”. Labour’s Conference slogan will be “Change Begins”. So far, to my jaded eyes, it looks very much like continuity Tories, mired in sleaze and fighting each other like rats in a sack but getting a far better press from the compliant MSM. Even Harperson has warned Keith that doubling down on his freebies is angering and alienating people. Keith seems to have a tin ear, wonder if he inherited that from the Tories as well. Living it up like a Lord while the rest of us expect to get hammered on taxes, the WFA and the cost of living is not a good look. What next, a dacha in somewhere like Virginia Water maybe or a walled compound for the nomenklatura.

Even his “I won’t be secure” comment on accepting Arsenal’s offer of a box rings hollow. Nik Nak and even the Prince of Wales sit in the stands in safety. 

Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, has been drawn into the row. “Government figures” have accused her of “going rogue” with her 15% pay offer to train drivers. Supposedly this offer came out of the blue and caught the cabinet off guard. Louise’s allies say she had the full backing of Keith but this is now disputed. Her parliamentary aide, Liam Conlon (Sue Gray’s son) was given £4,000 by rail union ASLEF to help his successful attempt to become an MP. This was topped up to the tune of £10k by another gift from Lord Alli after which the Lord Alli got his pass to Downing Street. The 15% offer is believed to have opened the floodgates allowing the sleaze stories to dominate discussions.

In what appears to be an attempt to shift the spotlight on the Tories Rachel Thieves has announced an investigation into £674 million worth of Covid contracts. Long overdue this may turn up some really dodgy dealing but is not going to deflect criticism of what Labour are up to.

Finally as I trawl back through reports a cross-party commission has proposed a new “oven ready” healthcare policy to get rNHS back on track. Now where have we heard that “oven ready” phrase before?
 

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