Whitehall ‘heavy hitter’ takes over Downing Street party inquiry - but who is she?

A top Whitehall mandarin will take over the inquiry into alleged May 2020 garden party and Christmas parties at Downing Street and the Department for Education - after Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was embroiled in the scandal himself

A senior civil servant and Whitehall heavy hitter has been handed the challenge of investigating the “endemic” parties across Whitehall during coronavirus restrictions - after her predecessor was caught up in the scandal himself.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was forced to quit his role leading the inquiry into a number of alleged gatherings on Friday (17 December), after it emerged a quiz was held in his own department that he was aware of and spoke at.

Sue Gray will carry out inquiries into alleged gatherings at Downing Street and the Department for Education in November and December last year, when indoor mixing was banned. It has also emerged that a garden party at No.10 took place on 20 May 2020 at the height of lockdown restrictions.

Once described as “deputy God”, Sue Gray is second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and was previously director-general of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office from 2012 to 2018.

She oversaw the Plebgate inquiry in 2012 after former chief whip Andrew Mitchell was accused of calling a policeman a “pleb” at the Downing Street gates, and was once described as “deputy God” by then Labour MP Paul Flynn in a meeting of Parliament’s Public Administration Committee the same year.

Former Tory MP and Cabinet office minister Oliver Letwin is reported to have said of Ms Gray: “It took me precisely two years before I realised who it is that runs Britain. Our great United Kingdom is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray, the head of ethics or something in the Cabinet Office. Unless she agrees, things just don’t happen.”

She is also part of the panel deciding on who will be next chair of the media regulator Ofcom.

Mr Blackford told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that “it needs to be someone from authority from outwith Government, from outwith the Civil Service. I would suggest that the best way to do that would be by having a judge-led inquiry”.

Ms Gray was brought in after allegations emerged yesterday that Mr Case had attended a ‘Christmas drinks’ event with around 15 to 20 members of staff, according to two Whitehall officials who were in attendance.

The Times reported that one of the parties was held on December 17, the day before the alleged Christmas party at Downing Street at the centre of the saga.

“A small number of them, who had been working in the office throughout the pandemic and on duty that day, took part from their desks, while the rest of the team were virtual.

“The Cabinet Secretary played no part in the event, but walked through the team’s office on the way to his own office.

Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. You can also sign up to our email newsletters and get a curated selection of our best reads to your inbox every day.