So, Cluedo fans, who finished off Sue Gray? Was it Chris Mason in the BBC newsroom with the revelation her £170,000 salary topped that of the PM? Was it Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire in the Sunday Times with the exclusive that Gray’s close friend Waheed Alli had been given a No 10 pass after his work leading the election fundraising campaign? Or maybe it was Pogrund again, a short while later, when he exposed the PM had breached parliamentary rules by failing to declare Lord Alli’s frocks for Victoria Starmer.
Maybe it was Sky News in its Westminster Accounts project, which showed Keir Starmer had pocketed the largest number of freebies and hospitality recorded of any MP since 2019 (a political disaster Gray should have seen coming). Or perhaps the Sun’s reporting that Gray had moved campaign strategist Morgan McSweeney’s desk further from the PM’s office. Or was it Westminster snapper Steve Back in a front-page image for the Daily Mail which showed Gray in a tense meeting with Michael Bourke, a member of the cabinet secretary’s team, and thereby revealed the dysfunction at the heart of Downing Street?
In the end it was none of them – and all of them. It was the sheer volume of stories that painted Gray as a power-crazed dictator causing havoc in government: of her antagonising and freezing out colleagues; of her failure at managing the transition to government; of lacking the nous to keep her boss out of a sleaze storm; and for operating a flimsy policy plan insufficient to keep the lobby occupied. Think of a potential failing in a chief of staff and there was a story to fit the failing. The journalists are, of course, just doing their jobs.
So, a victory for the leakers then? Undoubtedly. Sue Gray may have been content to label reporters “scumbag journalists” (another leak unlikely to endear her to the media) but her problem was far closer to home. She’d made too many enemies among the advisers she thought overpaid and underqualified for government. And among those who wanted easier access to the PM. The leaks went from a trickle to a torrent.
Those responsible may be celebrating. But they should be mindful of the appalling long-term damage the past three months have done, giving right-wing news outlets material they could only have dreamed of before the election. The battle to regain any credibility in those titles, which influence so much of the broadcast agenda and national conversation, will take years. Gray may have gone, but the perception of chaos will take years to overcome – if they’re lucky.
Sue Gray was already “the story” before she got the job. I thought it a mistake when Starmer first chose her – why give the Tories ammunition for the claim that her partygate inquiry was a Labour-inspired hit job on Boris Johnson? It was downhill from there and, as I wrote at the close of Labour’s conference, Starmer had either to back her or sack her. He chose the latter. Possibly because he didn’t have the balls to stand up to her detractors. More likely he just wanted the noise to stop.
Dumping Gray may not be fair. It may not even be the best thing for the running of his office. But at least it’s a decision that might draw a line under three months of mess. Although, remember much of that mess was not of her doing. It wasn’t Sue Gray accepting Arsenal tickets or ending winter fuel allowance or making business hang on interminably for the Budget. Plenty of people have contributed to the missteps of recent weeks and they are likely to make more. But someone has to take responsibility. Otherwise, who will be the next No 10 Cluedo casualty?
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There’s soon to be a new big beast on the British news scene. Dovid Efune, owner of the New York Sun, is this week expected to win the bidding war for the Telegraph, offering more than £550m – £100m above what early bidders valued the business at. Little is known about Efune’s backers, although it’s thought they include the investment funds Hudson Bay Capital and Oaktree, and the US hedge-funder and philanthropist Michael Leffell. Intriguingly, Efone is close to former Telegraph owner Conrad Black, who’s a founding director of Efone’s New York Sun. Black was jailed for fraud but was released after Donald Trump gave him a presidential pardon.
Efune, 39, was born in Manchester and lives in New York, where he was editor of Algemeiner Journal. Three years ago he brought the New York Sun out of hibernation, turning it into a digital-only product. Alarm bells are already ringing at the Telegraph that Efune may again ditch the print product and fail to understand the line between owner and editor. After taking over the Sun, Efune told Jewish Insider: “The Sun is a general-interest paper, but it’s also a Zionist newspaper.” He said in the Israel-Hamas conflict there is a need to “fight with every report and headline”. Telegraph journalists, who fended off an Abu Dhabi-backed bid earlier this year, fear their work being weaponised.
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“Trade unions are an essential part of a modern economy,” intoned the Guardian six weeks ago. But how do bosses feel now about the “essential” National Union of Journalists (NUJ) preparing a strike ballot over plans to sell the Observer to the upstart start-up Tortoise? Former BBC news boss and Tortoise founder James Harding has met key Observer staff in a bid to reassure them about plans for the world’s oldest Sunday paper, but few are convinced. Concerns have worsened that the print edition could be jettisoned by loss-making Tortoise, that jobs will go when no longer covered by the Guardian’s “no compulsory redundancy” pledge and “proper news” will be abandoned in favour of “arty-farty think pieces”. One insider said: “There’s a belief Tortoise is running out of funding and Harding wants the Observer as a ‘shiny new thing’ to give him a road back to relevance and funding.” A recent NUJ chapel meeting, attended by 400 Guardian and Observer staff, agreed unanimously to go to “dispute” with owners the Scott Trust, and if necessary take industrial action. Meanwhile a veritable In Our Time-style line-up of cultural figures including Ralph Fiennes, Joan Bakewell and Mark Rylance signed an open letter calling the deal a “betrayal”. Fears of strike action may derail the deal, but Observer staff should be careful what they wish for. Tortoise wants them. The Guardian no longer does.
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The much-loved Spectator cartoonist Morten Morland, whose covers have defined the magazine’s brand for 15 years, is leaving. Announcing his resignation on X, the multi-award-winner said he’d found it hard to balance the role with his work for the Times and Sunday Times. New Spectator editor Michael Gove, who started on 8 October, will find it tough to hire a replacement who can so brilliantly affirm the visual identity of the magazine and crystallise in one image what thousands of words attempt to communicate.
[See also: Keir Starmer’s headaches won’t end with Sue Gray]
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This article appears in the 09 Oct 2024 issue of the New Statesman, 100 days that shook Labour