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Downing Street has been accused of double standards after failing to investigate two senior Conservative advisers accused of misconduct, while having investigated a former civil servant about working for Labour.
On Monday, Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin said Sue Gray had committed a “prima facie” breach of the civil service code by discussing a role with Keir Starmer without telling her Whitehall bosses.
Gray was approached by the Labour leader about a possible role in October 2022. She did not tell the Cabinet Office about it until reports emerged in March 2023. She subsequently resigned on deciding to take the position, and has been approved to start the role this September.
Last week, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said it had been given no evidence that Gray breached the code.
Sources told Tortoise that, during the course of the investigation, they argued a precedent had been set by the decision not to look into bullying allegations made last autumn against Dan Rosenfield, former chief of staff under Boris Johnson, because he was no longer employed.
This precedent was crystallised by the more recent decision not to investigate former adviser Daniel Korski over claims he groped TV executive Daisy Goodwin. Both Korski and Rosenfield deny the claims.
One former Downing Street insider said: “The advice was they would not look into it because [Rosenfield] had left the position, therefore they would disregard [the complaints]. Whereas now the government is publishing a WMS [written ministerial statement] on Sue Gray, after she has left her position.”
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA, a trade union for civil servants, said: “It’s an obvious contradiction. They have to explain why they have picked to investigate some individuals and not others, particularly given they have written to the complainants and said we are not investigating, while they are putting out a WMS about the other one.”
He added: “That tells you that if it’s about politics it’s a priority, but if it’s bullying or sexual harassment it’s not.”
During the investigation into Gray, things had become “pretty nasty”, said a source. The Cabinet Office ultimately advised ministers against making the finding public. However, that advice was overruled, resulting in Quinn’s written statement.
A government source said it was “not true” that the government had been advised against making the findings public.
They added: “I think the question is why Keir Starmer is happy to court someone and by doing so compromise their political neutrality and then hire them after it has been found they broke the civil service code.”
Asked about the decision not to investigate complaints against Korski or Rosenfield, the spokesperson said: “It was not under Rishi Sunak’s administration.”
The Cabinet Office declined to comment.
Photograph Leon Neal/Getty Images