Starmer rewrites the rules to pay Sue Gray more than PM earns

Sir Keir Starmer changed the rules to pay Sue Gray more than the Prime Minister as critics branded her “the only pensioner better off under Labour”.

Ms Gray now receives a taxpayer-funded salary of £170,000 – meaning she is on £3,000 more than Sir Keir. Previously, the top salary band for special advisers was £140,000 to £145,000.

It has led to questions about the balance of power in No 10 amid claims that Ms Gray is an “extremely powerful” chief of staff.

Contrasting the pay of Ms Gray, who was born in 1957, with the winter fuel raid on 10 million retirees, a senior figure told The Times: “Sue Gray is the only pensioner better off under Labour.”

One Whitehall source told The Telegraph they had been left “speechless” by the news of Ms Gray’s salary.

Speaking to the BBC, another source said: “It speaks to the dysfunctional way No 10 is being run – no political judgment, an increasingly grand Sue who considers herself to be the deputy prime minister, hence the salary, and no other voice for the Prime Minister to hear as everything gets run through Sue.”

Another source told the BBC: “It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story. She declined.”

A government insider called Ms Gray’s pay “the highest-ever special adviser salary in the history of special advisers”.

A separate adviser told the BBC it was “bizarre” for Ms Gray to earn more than Sir Keir at a time when some special advisers to Cabinet ministers do not think they are paid well enough.

They said: “I’m working harder than ever in a more important job and they want to pay me less than the Labour Party was paying me when it was broke.”

Matthew Doyle, Sir Keir’s director of communications, was said to have initially been offered a salary of £111,000, which the BBC said was then increased by £30,000.

Last month, The Telegraph revealed discontent among some insiders about special advisers – the political roles attached to Cabinet ministers – needing approval from Ms Gray.

Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was among a number of senior figures who did not have a full team of “spads” as recently as last month.

Ms Gray has also been blamed for spads reportedly working in government for several weeks before they were shown a proposed contract with key details of their employment.

The former senior civil servant has great influence in her Downing Street role, which extends to involvement in ministerial appointments and top-level decision-making.

It was claimed in the initial BBC report on her pay that she had turned down a lower offer, meaning she would have received less money than the Prime Minister.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “It is false to suggest that political appointees have made any decisions on their own pay bands or determining their own pay. Any decision on special adviser pay is made by officials, not political appointees.

“As set out publicly, special advisers cannot authorise expenditure of public funds or have responsibility for budgets.”

The Conservatives have raised a number of questions for Labour and the Cabinet Office over what they describe as an “unprecedented pay deal”.

The party demanded that Downing Street reveal whether Sir Keir personally signed off the salary, and what role Ms Gray played, if any, in the setting of her salary.

As leader of the opposition in 2021, Sir Keir criticised a five-figure pay rise for Dominic Cummings, who was chief adviser to Boris Johnson during the first half of his premiership.

The Labour leader wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “£40,000 per year pay rise for Dominic Cummings. £3.50 per week for NHS nurses. The mask has slipped.”

‘We never comment on staff salaries’

Ms Gray was accused of cronyism last month after a former Labour think tank staffer was given a senior role in the Cabinet Office.

She became a household name in 2022 when she led a report into alleged lockdown-breaking parties across Downing Street and Whitehall amid the partygate scandal.

Sir Keir then poached her as his chief of staff in March last year, prompting accusations from the Conservatives she had broken impartiality rules. Labour has repeatedly insisted all rules were followed around Ms Gray’s appointment.

A spokesman for Sir Keir said: “We never comment on staff salaries.”

Government sources added that salary data was set out annually in the ministerial pay report and special advisers annual report.

Like special advisers to the Government, Ms Gray’s salary is covered by the taxpayer.

Liam Booth-Smith, who was Rishi Sunak’s chief of staff, was paid between £140,000 and £144,999. His penchant for leather jackets earned him the nickname “the Travolta of the Treasury”.