Sue Gray urges caution over Civil Service cuts while hitting out at insults
Officials are central to the Labour administration’s mission to realise economic growth, the Labour peer said in her maiden speech.
Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has cautioned the Government over cuts to the Civil Service and hit out at the insulting language being used.
Making her maiden speech in Parliament, the one-time “partygate” investigator stressed the importance of officials to the Labour administration’s mission to realise economic growth and warned when derogatory statements were made about them “they hear it too”.
The Labour peer’s comments follow reports that moves to reform the Civil Service and reduce its size had been dubbed “Operation Chainsaw”, although this was denied by Downing Street.
This was an apparent reference to Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw to symbolise the work of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a Trump administration programme aimed at cutting US federal government spending.
Unions have warned as many as 50,000 people could lose their jobs and vital services could deteriorate after the Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed plans earlier this week to cut Civil Service running costs by 15% by the end of the decade as part of a spending squeeze.
Taking the title Baroness Gray of Tottenham, the former senior civil servant joined the red benches last month.
She told peers she joined the Civil Service at the most junior grade and among her first jobs had been with the then Department for Social Security working in employment support.
Lady Gray said: “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.
“They were the Civil Service at its best, on the front line, as far away from Whitehall’s machinations as it’s possible to be.”
She added: “Today I see the same sort of brilliance. What these and other civil servants are doing is central to the Government’s and the nation’s mission to bring back growth into our economy and security to our society.
“That is why I would caution all of us to be careful, not just about our decisions but our language.
“When we hear the phrases, ‘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.”
