Sue Gray has used her maiden speech in the House of Lords to warn the current government against grandstanding attacks on the civil service and ill-considered headcount cuts.
The former senior civil servant delivered a clear signal to prime minister Keir Starmer and his cabinet that politically-motivated criticism of the civil service risks damaging the delivery of government priorities.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves this week set out plans for civil-service headcount cuts in the region of 10,000 roles by the end of the decade in a bid to reduce departmental administration costs by 15%.
Gray used her speech to acknowledge the need for civil service reform. But she urged ministers to remember that civil servants need to succeed in their work in order for the government to succeed.
Gray gave a potted history of her rise through the ranks to become second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office and the then Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in her first speech as Baroness Gray of Tottenham yesterday.
She chose a Lords debate on the Employment Rights Bill for her introductory comments as a Labour peer, and made a joking reference to the relevance of her spell as chief of staff to prime minister Keir Starmer, which ended three months after last year’s general election.
Gray’s most poignant observations related to the untimely death of her father in the 1970s, which led to her leaving school to join the civil service, and the subsequent suicide of her mother.
She talked with passion about her early-career colleagues at the then Department for Social Security, when she worked in employment support. She said her experience was “highly relevant” to yesterday’s debate as well as to the future of the civil service.
“Back then, I worked with truly heroic and committed people, striving every day, in very difficult circumstances, to help people in even more challenging situations," Gray said. “They were the civil service at its best: on the front line, as far away from Whitehall’s machinations as it is possible to be.”
She said that the heroism she witnessed early in her career had not been lost and was evident among the officials of 2025.
“Today, I see the same sort of brilliance," she said. "What these and other civil servants are doing is central to the government’s – and the nation’s – mission to bring growth back into our economy and security to our society.
Gray concluded: “That is why I would caution all of us to be careful, not only about our decisions but our language also. When we hear phrases with ‘blobs’, ‘pen-pushers’, ‘axes’, ‘chainsaws’ and other implements, they hear it too.
"Difficult decisions are needed, of course, and the civil service will be keen to be part of any reform journey, but we need them and other public servants to succeed. I will continue to support a progressive civil service. I hope others will do the same.”
Praise for May, Maude and FDA chief Penman
Unlike many former senior civil servants, Gray does not sit as a crossbench peer. Instead, she is affiliated to the Labour Party and was nominated for her peerage by the prime minister.
Despite this, former boss Starmer did not feature among a considerable list of names Gray chose to thank in her maiden speech.
Those singled out for praise included former cabinet secretaries Gus O’Donnell and the late Sir Jeremy Heywood; former prime minister Theresa May, ex-Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, and FDA general secretary – and Civil Service World columnist – Dave Penman.
Gray also made a point of thanking House of Lords officials “for their patience and for so ably showing me the ropes” since she formally became a peer last month.
May, who was prime minister from July 2016 to July 2019 was praised for establishing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Infected Blood Inquiry, which Gray said represented “a steadfast commitment to ensuring the truth was told”.
Controversial former Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude – a divisive figure among civil servants – was praised for his work, along with special adviser Simone Finn, on widening participation on the boards of public bodies.
Gray said Maude and Finn had “provided the positive backdrop” that allowed moves to encourage people from all backgrounds to serve on boards “to be developed and flourish”.
In addition to the late Lord Heywood, Gray also praised late New Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell and late Labour Party deputy leader John Prescott as “exemplars of the very best of public service”.
She added: “I would also like to thank those who guided me in the challenging last few years of my career in and around Downing Street – whether working in it or investigating it – including Dave Penman and the FDA team.”
Ten years ago, a BBC report described Gray as “the most influential person you’ve never heard of” in a nod to her behind-the-scenes power as the Cabinet Office’s then director-general for propriety and ethics.
The “challenging last few years” she referred to yesterday included being fast-forwarded to most-influential-civil-servant-you-have-heard-of status for her role as head of the official investigation into the Partygate Scandal.
Gray later came in for unrelenting media attention when she agreed to become Starmer’s chief of staff as leader of the opposition in 2023, a move that sparked furious reaction from Conservatives.
She quit the chief of staff role in October last year, following a well-documented power struggle with Starmer’s then head of political strategy, Morgan McSweeney.