Andrew Marr: Sue Gray's appointment as Labour's Chief of Staff is a matter of 'ethics'
6 March 2023, 18:54 | Updated: 6 March 2023, 20:07
Andrew Marr has tonight labelled Sue Gray's departure from the Cabinet Office a matter of "ethics", calling her acceptance of Sir Keir Starmer's job offer a "kerfuffle" that had wide reaching national consequences.
Opening Tonight with Andrew Marr, the broadcaster reflected on how the former senior civil servant's appointment as Labour's new Chief of Staff would "greatly help Labour".
Dismissing claims her appointment is an "inside the Westminster bubble story that doesn't move the price of fish", Marr went on to note it was a simple case of "what's right and what's wrong".
"It's about raw power - and, Boris Johnson for instance, resurrecting his career," said Marr.
"Because she has been so long at the heart of power, Sue Gray knows everything. All the hidden scandals, the feuds, where the bodies from the last political years are burried."
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Andrew Marr breaks down the Westminster 'curfuffle' over Sue Gray
"There's much much more to this than who knew what, when," said Marr of the story that has seen
Marr also spoke of the Tory Party's concern over whether the former senior Civil Servant would keep tight lipped over the information she gathered following her report into the Number 10 lockdown parties.
Once hailed something of a hero by the Conservatives after no fatal blows were dealt to Boris Johnson as part of the review, Marr said: "Now they're accusing her for being a Labour stooge all along".
A move that could ultimately "discredit her investigation" into the former PM, Marr said her appointment "could get him off the hook completely".
"I think the Privileges Committee of MPs looking into both of those parties will carry on with their patient, public evidence-based work."
"And if their report finds him guilty of deliberately misleading the Commons - and he's suspended on their advice for 10 days or more, voters in his Uxbridge seat can trigger a by-election."
"And I think Johnson's political career would then be over".
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