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NADINE DORRIES: Picture of Biden and Sue Gray that begs the question...
who's our real PM? By Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail Published: 20:46 EDT, 16 September 2024 | Updated: 20:53 EDT, 16 September 2024 e-mail View comments They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this one – taken at the White House last Friday and published in The Mail on Sunday – is proof of that. It is extraordinary. Sue Gray, Keir Starmer ’s controversial chief of staff, poses alongside Joe Biden , whose arm is resting casually on her shoulder.
It isn’t the oversized jacket in the style of haute scruff she seems to favour that caught my eye, but her confident smile and the body language as the President of the United States pulls her towards him for the shot. And Starmer? Presumably he’s somewhere behind them both, possibly carrying her handbag. Sue Gray displays a confident smile and body language as the President of the United States pulls her towards him for the shot, writes Nadine Dorries This image reveals everything you need to know about the power and reach of Sue Gray after decades in Whitehall.
Who, I wondered, is the Prime Minister and who is the bag carrier? Read More EXCLUSIVE NADINE DORRIES: The sad truth of the Strictly row is that Amanda has already won Gray and Biden acted like old friends and no doubt they had plenty to talk about. He, like Gray, is of Irish descent and proud of his roots. At the height of The Troubles in the 1980s, she famously took time out from her high-flying civil service career to run a pub in Newry, as you do, in the heart of Republican ‘bandit’ country.
It has long been rumoured she was a spy for British intelligence – or perhaps even a double agent – something she has denied. But the rumours won’t go away, and with every week that passes the intrigue deepens. As The Mail on Sunday revealed, she now faces new questions over her more recent dealings with senior Sinn Fein politicians, including Conor Murphy, a former IRA member.
Astonishingly, he’s claimed that in Gray, Republicans have ‘a friend in Court, so we can certainly have access directly to Downing Street’. When asked by reporters at the weekend if Sue Gray ‘had become the story’ amid the new concerns and earlier reports, also revealed by The MoS, of a power struggle in No 10 between Gray and Labour’s strategy chief Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister replied that ‘most of the rumours about Sue Gray are wrong’. Note that ‘most’.
Sue Gray (right) with political leaders including Joe Biden (third from left) Sir Keir Starmer (centre right) and Foreign Secretary David Lammy (fourth from right) in the Blue Room at the White House Then, just hours later, Westminster was reeling at the news that Gray will be attending meetings of the National Security Council. Established by David Cameron in 2010, the Council is made up of those who hold the most senior positions in the land – among them, the chancellor, deputy PM and foreign and defence secretaries. The heads of the intelligence services and chief of the defence staff attend as and when.
Now their number includes someone who quit her top job in the (allegedly) impartial civil service to work for Labour and who is regarded by a member of Sinn Fein as a ‘friend’! Unelected, unaccountable, the woman dubbed ‘Sue Gray Area’ by former civil service colleagues is notorious for never leaving a paper trail. It was she who taught government special advisers how to permanently delete emails using the ‘double deletion’ method. She once told Michael Gove, a close ally and friend, that he should use private emails for government business.
Following a complaint, that decision was promptly overturned by the information commissioner. Already firmly at the heart of No 10 – it’s claimed she has even intervened to stop security briefings for the PM, urging officials to ‘tell [her]’ instead – she has now moved seamlessly into national security. Sue Gray is used to getting what she wants – by one means or another.
Just yesterday, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said he could not guarantee government funds for the multi-million-pound redevelopment of the Casement Park Stadium in Belfast – a place synonymous with the brutal murder by an IRA mob of two British soldiers in 1988. It was a project Gray had lobbied hard for – a possible venue for Euro 2028 matches – but she angered ministers by ‘personally dominating’ negotiations in what they claim was a ‘constitutionally improper’ way. But last week there was also an out-of-the-blue announcement that the Government had ordered a public inquiry into the murder, 35 years ago, of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, after claims British security forces aided his killers.
Number 10 refused to say whether Gray was involved in the decision, but I did wonder if it was a sop from Benn to appease her after the stadium disappointment. We’ll never know, but if I was Hilary, I’d watch my back! Today's literary gem 'He who wishes to be obeyed, must know how to command.' Machiavelli Advertisement Given all this – and so much more – I have a question for the Prime Minister: What is it about Sue Gray that made you think she was a suitable candidate to attend the National Security Council? Was it simply because she asked? Former Tory cabinet minister Oliver Letwin famously observed that it took him two years in power to realise, that ‘Sue Gray runs Britain.
Nothing happens unless Sue Gray says so.’ A new shadow minister recently said: ‘You don’t say no to Sue Gray.’ As the woman who has played various roles in the departures of two PMs – Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak – she has now reached the pinnacle of power and influence.
How satisfied she must have felt flying back from the US, the warmth of the President’s hand lingering on her shoulder as she steels herself for the challenges ahead. She has a country to run, after all. It took some brass neck for Lady Starmer to turn up at London Fashion Week for the Edeline Lee show after being loaned one of the designer’s stunning creations given recent revelations.
Labour peer and donor Lord Alli paid for clothes and a personal shopper for the PM’s wife in what has been dubbed Wardrobegate. I think what Lady Starmer did yesterday was show two fingers to her critics. But that’s what happens when you give Labour a whopping majority – they laugh in the face of us all, not just the pensioners.
The Jackson 5 were the soundtrack to my teenage years and I remember the joy of crowding around our red and grey Roberts radio to listen to Alan Freeman present Pick Of The Pops. So I felt slightly broken when I heard that Tito, a founding member of the group, had died aged 70. I was 12 when I Want You Back reached the top five in the UK.
Yesterday I played it as I wrote this column – it’s still a great number. A smart move by the royals to wish Harry a happy 40th birthday on Sunday. They’re being a reasonable and loving family, holding out the hand of friendship to the Prodigal Son.
Will he respond with the same grace and forgive the perceived wrongs he harbours? You know what to do, Harry. Labour Sinn Fein Share or comment on this article: NADINE DORRIES: Picture of Biden and Sue Gray that begs the question..
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