New PM Keir Starmer should dismiss officials and advisers found to be responsible for fuelling a swathe of news stories accusing chief of staff Sue Gray of wielding her authority in questionable ways, a veteran Whitehall watcher has warned.
TV and radio presenter – and former New Statesman political editor – Steve Richards said accusations levelled at Gray in recent weeks were reminiscent of criticisms made of Harold Wilson's top aide, Marcia Williams, in the 1960s and 70s.
Former Cabinet Office second permanent secretary Gray's investigations into the Partygate scandal made her a controversial figure in Whitehall even before she quit the civil service to become Starmer's chief of staff last year.
But since Labour returned to government, she has been accused of limiting cabinet secretary Simon Case's access to the new prime minister; supporting the employment of party donors as civil servants; and slowing down the process of ministerial appointments to boost her influence in departments.
Gray has also faced claims of "causing cabinet divisions" by attempting to drive through the £300m redevelopment of Belfast's dilapidated Casement Park stadium so that it can host games in the 2028 Euros. Starmer described that accusation as "nonsense" yesterday.
Gray's son, Liam Conlon, became Labour MP for Beckenham and Penge in last month's general election. His rapid appointment as a parliamentary private secretary to the ministerial team at the Department for Transport raised questions about his mother's influence.
In the latest edition of his Rock & Roll Politics podcast, Richards suggests the treatment of Gray and Williams has misogynist overtones. However, he also argues there are similarities to New Labour-era stories about the influence of communications chief Alastair Campbell and special adviser Ed Balls. Balls subsequently went on to become education secretary under Gordon Brown.
"What is familiar is the poisonous briefings against a powerful woman and the relationship she has with the prime minister compared to other courtiers who seek that influence and power too," Richards said.
"Whoever's doing it should be sacked. I hear Keir Starmer doesn't like this kind of thing. Well the way to stop it is to get rid of those doing it. And it'd be easy to find out who."
Richards said he had heard names of perpetrators mentioned, but declined to repeat them because he had no personal evidence.
He said briefings about senior behind-the-scenes figures were dangerous because they created a "perception of unease" in government that could "often be completely exaggerated". Richards added that media interest and the vested interests of others gave such stories a self-perpetuating quality that could hinder a government's ability to deliver.
"The media will leap on this kind of stuff, because they are fascinated by people behind the scenes," he said.
"In the New Labour era there was a huge fascination with people like Alastair Campbell, who now is very much not behind the scenes, and people like Ed Balls who was originally a behind-the-scenes figure for Gordon Brown. The impressions that the media created about these people were completely wrong.
"As much was written about these people as many cabinet ministers for years. In the end it created a distorted sense of what was going on in that government and it damaged that government. It became hard for that government to announce anything without people saying: 'Oh, that's Campbell. It's not a real policy, it's spin'."
Richards said his understanding was that as summer-recess silly-season stories about Gray were circulating frenziedly last week, she was "working incredibly hard" on a range of different issues.
"And yet there was all this going around: 'Oh yes, too much power, too much this, too much that'," he said. "It's all nonsense. If she has power, it's derived from Keir Starmer. Tony Blair decided how much power Alastair Campbell could have, and so it is all nonsensical."
Richards said stories of internal power struggles in government had the potential to "suck up much bigger political energy".
"The media won't stop once they've got an idea in their heads," he said. "It'll be a bit right but 75-80% wrong. At the most fundamental it will be the idea that – say – Sue Gray or Marcia Williams were seizing power in a way that undermined the prime minister and stopped other mighty people from wielding more virtuous power.
"It's Keir Starmer who decides this range of powers and how they should be distributed. It was Harold Wilson who decided what Marcia Williams could and couldn't do. And he needed her, for whatever complex reasons."
In common with Gray, Richards is also the parent of a newly elected Labour MP. His son, Jake Richards, was elected to represent Rother Valley in South Yorkshire on 4 July.