Partygate detective turned chief of staff for embattled Starmers The Irish News

Sue Gray first hit headlines as an investigator into anti-lockdown parties in Boris Johnson's government, with the civil service's impartiality later questioned amid Tory criticism of her decision to leave the Cabinet Office and join the Labor Party as chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer.

The Whitehall veteran continued to feature in the news after accepting the party's political post with leaks revealing the 67-year-old earning more than the Prime Minister and reports of a power struggle within Downing Street between her and other aides leading to her eventual resignation in October over her fears of becoming a distraction to Sir Keirs' government.

Ms Gray was due to take on a new role as envoy to nations and regions after a government break, but Number 10 announced a month after her resignation that she had decided not to take on the role.

Thrust into the spotlight when she took over the investigation into the breach of coronavirus rules at No 10 in 2021, Ms Gray went from an influential but little-known conduct arbiter in government to a household name in a few months.

She stepped in to lead the investigation after Simon Case, then her boss's cabinet secretary, recused himself following allegations his own office held a Christmas event in the middle of a lockdown.

Wait for Sue Gray became a well-known refrain as the nation prepared for her highly anticipated report.

An initial dossier, published in January 2022, included several harsh criticisms of Downing Street's drinking culture, but lacked detail about the parties as it was hampered by an investigation launched by the Metropolitan Police.

But his full report from May 2022 turned out to be a bombshell. It details events in which officials drank so much they became ill, sang karaoke, got involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people in across the country were unable to see friends and family.

She criticized failures of leadership and judgment in Number 10 and said the center's senior leaders, both political and official, must take responsibility.

Six weeks later, Mr Johnson was forced out of office by his own cabinet and by Tory MPs.

In March last year, Ms Gray was embroiled in controversy when Mr Johnson and his allies reacted with fury to the announcement that she was considering becoming Sir Keir's chief of staff.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told GB News it was hard not to feel she had been rewarded and offered a prime job for effectively destroying a prime minister and creating a coup. 'State.

She was allowed to take up her role in September 2023, following a six-month cooling-off period from when she left her senior civil servant post, following a review by Whitehall's anti-corruption watchdog, although that a separate Cabinet Office investigation concluded she had broken civil rules. service code due to his contacts with the Labor Party before his resignation.

A row within the government emerged in September this year after leaks revealed Ms Gray had received a pay rise after the election, meaning she earned more than Sir Keir. The BBC reported that she received a salary of 170,000 euros, based on a leak, putting her earnings around 3,000 euros more than those of prime ministers.

In early October, Ms Gray resigned as Downing Street chief of staff, explaining: “In recent weeks it has become clear to me that the intense commentary around my position risked distracting from the vital work of change of the government.

At the same time, it was announced that she would take on a new role as envoy to the Council of Nations and Regions, but she missed the Council's inaugural meeting, causing confusion over the expected date of her entry into office. function, number 10 announcing a month later, she had decided not to take this position.

In her former role as Director General of Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2018, she is said to have overseen cabinet reshuffles, served as a guide in compiling honors lists and even signed political briefs before their publication.

The diplomatic skills required for such a sensitive role were honed in a place far removed from Whitehall, when Ms. Gray and her country and western singer husband, Bill Conlon, bought and ran a pub in Newry, Northern Ireland, in strongest of North America's troubles. late 1980s.

During this time, Ms Gray confronted IRA paramilitaries who tried to hijack her car, adamantly refusing to get out of her vehicle when ordered to do so, friends told the Belfast Telegraph.

Reportedly nicknamed Deputy God by some in the civil service, Ms Gray, said to be a cat lover, was no stranger to a standards inquiry, having led two previous reviews into the behavior of ministers.

Polly Mackenzie, who served as policy director at the Cabinet Office under former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg, said Ms Gray knew what it was like to hold the power to end a career.

She knows everything anyone has done wrong, the chief executive of think tank Demos told BBC Radio 4 for a profile of the civil servant.

So that means she can be incredibly powerful when it comes to decisions that could make or break a political career.

Ms Gray's criticism of the behavior of senior ministers in the past has led to high-profile sackings and resignations.

Former Prime Minister Theresa May tasked her with investigating her close ally Damian Green, who was accused of lying about the presence of pornographic images on his Commons computer.

She also led the so-called full inquiry into allegations that Andrew Mitchell, then chief whip, insulted police officers in Downing Street.

David Laws, who was a minister in the Conservative-Lib Democrat coalition government, said David Cameron's former political boss Oliver Letwin once told him that unless Ms Gray agreed, things would simply not happen in Whitehall.

Some critics have suggested that she played a significant role in blocking freedom of information requests, with former BBC Newsnight journalist Chris Cook reporting in 2015 that she was known for her determination not to leave documentary trails and that it had helped ministries fight against disclosures.

According to her government biography, Ms Gray began working for the Cabinet Office in the late 1990s following her time behind the bar in Northern Ireland during a career break.

After serving as head of ethics at the Cabinet Office, she served as permanent secretary in the Northern Ireland Department of Finance from 2018 to 2021.

She reportedly refused to leave the Belfast office, in order to comply with lockdown rules.

After May 2021, she returned to the Cabinet Office as Second Permanent Secretary with responsibilities within the Department for Upgrading, Housing and Communities.