Labor Party hires civil servants as it prepares for power

Sue Gray is one of many former civil servants to join the Labor Party under Sir Keir Starmer. Photo: Stefan Rousseau, PA

Over the past 18 months, the Labor Party has hired more than a dozen civil servants as it continues to ramp up preparations for government work.

Sir Keir Starmer's party is widely expected to win the next general election. would be detained for a year, and poached mandarins from various Whitehall departments.

Sue Gray, a senior civil servant investigating Boris Johnson's Downing Street anti-lockdown parties, was poached by Sir Keir, the Labor Leader, to March.

Ms Gray refused to co-operate with a Cabinet Office investigation into whether she broke any rules by agreeing to take the job with Sir Keir, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said. Commons this summer.

She has now taken up her duties as the Labor Party leader's chief of staff after Akoba, the appointments watchdog, endorsed her despite an outcry from Tory ministers.

Ms Gray was the former Second Permanent Secretary in the Department of Uplift, Housing and Communities.

Among the senior civil servants who will join Labour's team is Nick Williams, head of economic policy.

Mr Williams was a science policy adviser for more than five years and then continued to work on the government's growth strategy during the pandemic.

Another former Treasury official who led key global financial partnerships, began working under Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, this spring.

Former senior Treasury policy advisers have also joined the Labor Party in the past 18 months, an analysis by the Guardian found:

'Elements of the civil service have been awakened'

New recruits have also come from deeper within, analysis has found government.

A data scientist working in No 10 moved to the same role within the Labor Party this month, while another Downing Street official who worked on parliamentary briefings made a similar move last September year.

Meanwhile, the head of business engagement in the Northern Ireland office also joined Reeves' team as a business relations adviser earlier this year.

Other successes for the party in recruiting included hiring in April a senior lawyer from the government's legal department as legal adviser, and private secretary to the department of business, energy and industrial strategy, who will work directly for Sir Keir.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, told The Telegraph : «The problem with Sue Gray joining the Labor Party is that she was so senior, and if you are that senior, your impartiality should be forever.

«It's not surprising that between public service and There is a revolving door within Labour. The awakened elements of the civil service will find themselves at home in the Labor Party.»

The Labor Party declined to comment on personnel matters.