![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Sue-Gray-4608404.jpg?r=1678142499837\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/p>\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/p>\n
Partygate investigator Sue Gray may have broken strict civil service rules by taking a \u00adjob \u00adas Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s top aide, it was \u00ad
revealed on Monday. Ministers believe that her controversial appointment may be in breach of the rulebook.<\/p>\n
Paymaster General Jeremy Quin suggested that Ms Gray should have sought approval to work for the opposition before quitting her post last week.<\/p>\n
He blasted Labour for \u201cplaying fast and loose\u201d with the Whitehall code.<\/p>\n
In a fiery Commons showdown, furious \u00adTory MPs also condemned Sir Keir\u2019s recruitment, saying it \u201cstinks like a rotting fish\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Quin said: \u201cThe rules state that approval must be obtained prior to a job offer being announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Cabinet Office has not as yet been informed that the relevant notification to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments has been made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Quin added that Ms Gray had destroyed confidence in senior civil servants, failed to declare meetings with Labour and did not get approval to talk to Labour.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Keir-Starmer-4608406.jpg?r=1678142499978\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/p>\n
He hit out at Sir Keir for shattering Whitehall impartiality by poaching the top civil servant to be his chief of staff.<\/p>\n
Mr Quin said: \u201cThe party opposite talks about rules, they talk about transparency, they talk about standards in public life.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven all the constant talk, it\u2019s time they walked the walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Gray triggered a fierce backlash from Tory MPs after she quit her role as Second Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office last week to \u00adjoin Labour.<\/p>\n
Allies of Boris Johnson seized on the appointment as evidence her Partygate probe last year was a stitch-up.<\/p>\n
Ex-Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the move \u201csmashed to pieces the idea of an \u00adindependent civil service, when we know that one of the most senior civil servants in the \u00adcountry was conniving in secret meetings with the party of opposition\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tory Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson \u00adtold the Commons: \u201cThis latest grubby scandal from the Labour Party has cast a dark stain on democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Conservative MP Craig Whittaker said: \u201cIf the process looks like a rotting, stinking fish if it smells like a rotting, stinking fish, and it tastes like a rotting, stinking fish, chances are it\u2019s a rotting, stinking fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Tory backbencher Peter Bone said Labour\u2019s actions amounted to a \u201cconstitutional crisis\u201d, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s done immense damage to \u00adthe civil service and I don\u2019t know if it will be \u00adable to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s deputy leader Angela Rayner tried to defend the decision to hire Ms Gray, accusing the Tory party of \u201cindulging in conspiracies\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Sir Keir refused six times to explain when he first approached Ms Gray with the job offer.<\/p>\n
He insisted he had \u201cabsolutely no contact\u201d with her as she prepared her Partygate report last year. Sir Keir said: \u201cI\u2019ve been looking for a chief of staff for a little while now, but Sue will lay that out. But there\u2019s nothing improper at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Angela-Rayner-4608411.jpg?r=1678142500058\")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSue Gray is known for her integrity, she\u2019s known for her delivery in government, and those are two things \u00ad that \u00adI think are essential to an incoming Labour government if we get the privilege of being voted in next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Commons row comes after it was claimed a top civil servant has \u00adprivately raised concerns that Ms Gray broke impartiality rules by holding secret meetings with Sir Keir.<\/p>\n
Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, is said to have raised concerns in an online video call with colleagues.<\/p>\n
It was reported that she had reminded \u00adother \u00adofficials about their duty to impartiality and that Ms Gray now becoming Sir Keir\u2019s chief of staff \u201cis a real challenge to acting in a \u00adway \u00adthat deserves and retains the confidence \u00adof ministers\u201d.<\/p>\n
The role of permanent secretary is the most senior civil servant position in a government department.<\/p>\n
Ms Gray was on Monday due to tell the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which is the government\u2019s appointments watchdog when she first had talks about the chief of staff role.<\/p>\n
An Acoba spokeswoman said this was a \u00adconfidential process and that there was no known timescale for the process.<\/p>\n
Last year, Ms Gray produced a highly critical report into lockdown gatherings held in Downing Street while Mr Johnson was still Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson is currently facing a different inquiry, which is run by a cross-party group of MPs, into whether he had misled Parliament when he said Covid rules had not been broken in Downing Street.<\/p>\n