Labour’s Harman said it was a ‘mistake’ to be expected

Former Labor deputy leader Baroness Harriet Harman said “mistakes” and “mishaps” should be expected when a new administration comes to Downing Street.

He was speaking to the BBC after Sue Gray quit her post as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, amid criticism and controversy.

Defense Secretary John Healey said he had played a “big role” in preparing the party for power, but “was a distraction”.

Ms Gray has been caught up in the pay row after the BBC’s political editor revealed her salary was higher than Sir Keir’s and through a donation from Lord Waheed Alli.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour, Baroness Harman praised her “honest, hard-working” character.

“I’ve always found him wonderful to work with,” she told the programme.

Faced with Labor’s first three months in a tumultuous office, which has been marred by rows over freebies, Baroness Harman said: “It often happens when you’ve been out of power for a long time and come in, there’s a misstep, there’s clunkiness. .”

MPs return to Westminster on Monday, after a three-week break for party conference.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday, Healey said: “He made a huge contribution to helping prepare Labor for government, we owe him a huge debt, but as he said yesterday, he was going to be distracted by comments that took away the focus from the government’s job of change, and that’s why he was removed.

“I am very glad that he will continue to work with the government, to work with the prime minister.”

Announcing her resignation on Sunday, Ms Gray said her “strong comments” about the position meant she “risked becoming a distraction” to the government process.

He was caught up in the line over the pay, and embroiled in it controversy over clothing donation from Gusti Alli, for which he has reportedly authorized a while Downing Street passes.

The BBC’s Political Editor, Chris Mason, was told by a trusted source that a decision had been made on Friday and the prime minister is willing to fire Sue Gray. Sir Keir had decided that, whatever he said, he could no longer be chief of staff.

Ms Gray, who became a household name as a Partygate investigator, took on the newly created part-time job as the prime minister’s envoy for states and territories, in what our political editor says is a massive demotion.

The prime minister replaced him with Morgan McSweeney and has made four new appointments, including hiring James Lyons as head of strategic communications.

Ms Gray has been subject to lengthy internal briefings and criticism of the government which has not reached her first 100 days in office.

The prime minister will want to “get things ready, batten down the hatches and get things going,” Baroness Harman said.

During his tenure as leader of the House of Commons, he worked closely with Ms Gray when she was a senior civil servant.

He has also defended Ms Gray’s salary after our political editors revealed it his salary is higher than that of Sir Keir Starmer, insist it is “level for the job”.

Just weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner defended Ms Gray’s “outstanding” work and said she had been “harassed” in the media without being able to answer back, with other ministers expressing discomfort at the “gendered” feel of the attack. .

A spokesman for the opposition Conservatives said: “In less than 100 days, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor government has been in disarray, he has lost his chief of staff who is at the center of the scandal that the Labor Party is dealing with.”

Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick said the government was in “free fall” while peer James Cleverly said Labour’s “first 100 days” had been a “disaster” and “the civil war continues with the loss of Sue Grey”.

Lord Gavin Barwell, who worked with Ms Gray in her role as chief of staff to former Prime Minister Baroness Theresa May, told Radio 4’s The World Weekend this weekend that she had “made the right decision” to step down from the role.

“On a personal level, I’ve worked closely with Sue … and she’s an incredibly dedicated public servant and I feel for her, but I think she’s made the right decision, which is when you do a job like that when you’re .the story becomes very difficult to do the project,” he said.