Starmer has ‘no input’ on Sue Gray’s pay, Cabinet minister suggests

Ministers have “no political input” in the pay of their advisers, the Business Secretary has said, as he defended Sir Keir Starmer amid criticism of his chief of staff’s £170,000 salary.

Jonathan Reynolds said there was a “long-standing process” for determining earnings for aides and dismissed suggestions that the Prime Minister had personally intervened to increase Sue Gray’s pay.

Disclosures that Ms Gray received a pay rise after the election which means she earns more than Sir Keir have sparked a row within Government and prompted opposition critics to demand answers about how the decision was made.

Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “I think it’s important people understand that the pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There’s an official process that does that.

“I don’t, for instance, get to set the pay for my own advisers who work directly for me. So there’s a process, we don’t have political input into that.”

He added: “Sue Gray is getting on with the job of this Government delivering on our promises, I think that’s what matters more than anything else for anyone who works in Downing Street, and I can assure you that is exactly what is happening.”

On whether Sir Keir personally intervened to increase Ms Gray’s salary, Mr Reynolds said: “There’s a process that sets these things. It is widely recognised. It’s long-standing. It hasn’t changed and that is how pay bands are set for any adviser.”

The appointment of Ms Gray, a former senior civil servant whose report into lockdown-era parties within Downing Street contributed to the downfall of then-prime minister Boris Johnson, to Sir Keir’s team has been controversial.

The BBC report on her pay is the latest of a number of negative stories about the aide, and comes amid suggestions of mounting acrimony at the heart of the new Government over her earnings.

Downing Street denied this week that there was a “nest of vipers” behind the scenes in Sir Keir’s administration after reports of tensions involving senior officials, including between Ms Gray and director of political strategy Morgan McSweeney.

Over the weekend, Sir Keir sought to play down the rumours about Ms Gray, saying: “I’m not going to talk behind her back and I’m not going to talk about individual members of staff, whether it’s Sue Gray or any other member of staff.

“All I can say about the stories is most of them are wildly wrong.”

The BBC said a number of Whitehall sources had briefed the organisation on Ms Gray’s salary increase, meaning she earns about £3,000 more than Sir Keir, who is paid about £167,000.

Sir Keir signed off a rebanding of the salaries for special advisers shortly after taking office in July, according to the BBC.

This is not reflected in the most recent publicly available report outlining special adviser salaries and pay bands, which is from July 2023.

The focus on Ms Gray’s pay comes at an awkward time for the PM as it swiftly follows another row about his and his wife’s acceptance of lavish gifts from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli.

Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday, Mr Reynolds stuck to the line that he has “no problem” with ministers getting a “chance for a little bit of relaxation” as part of their jobs.

After it emerged that Sir Keir has received more than £100,000 in freebies from donors since 2019 – more than any other recent prime minister – the Cabinet minister denied that being gifted tickets to events was a perk.

Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: “It’s not a perk of the job, it’s part of the job. People want to engage with decision-makers. They want to ask you to be aware of what they are doing.

“Again, I think we have the right rules on transparency in relation to that. But this is about the job that we do and the need to be engaged with the sectors that we cover.”

He added that he had spent “pretty much every hour” working since becoming a secretary of state, “and if people get the chance for a little bit of relaxation as part of that, again, I’ve no problem or objection to that”.

Sir Keir has accepted around £39,000 from Lord Alli since December 2019, as well as nearly £40,000 in tickets from the Premier League.

These included four Taylor Swift tickets during the election campaign worth £4,000 and thousands of pounds worth of tickets to Arsenal games.

The Prime Minister was defiant over the donations when questioned about the row by reporters earlier this week, signalling he would continue to accept gifts and hospitality.

“I’m a massive Arsenal fan. I can’t go into the stands because of security reasons. Therefore, if I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game. You could say, ‘well, bad luck’. That’s why gifts have to be registered,” he said.

“But, you know, never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”