Gray accused of choosing ‘not to make representations’ to Cabinet Office inquiry into resignation
Oliver Dowden has just provided an update on the inquiry and said in a statement to parliament that the process “involved interviewing relevant persons” to establish “further details” on any communication between Sue Gray and Sir Keir Starmer.
However, Gray chose not to speak to the inquiry.
Dowden wrote: “On March 6 2023, Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General announced in reply to an Urgent Question that the Cabinet Office had been asked to look into the circumstances leading to the resignation of Sue Gray, the former Permanent Secretary for the Union and the Constitution and committed to update Parliament as appropriate.
“This process has involved interviewing relevant persons to establish further details on the contact between Ms Gray and the Leader of the Opposition.
“I can update the House that Ms Gray was given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so.”
Key events
Sue Gray’s focus is the independent advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) and she has “fully cooperated with” them and “given them all the details requested”, sources told the BBC.
A Labour source told Sky News that Sue Gray did cooperate with the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba).
The source said: “Sue Gray has fully cooperated with Acoba, which is the proper process. They have all the relevant details and are the ones who advise on these matters.”
Acoba provides the final judgment on Gray’s departure and is expected to recommend how long she should wait before being allowed to take up the job with Labour.
In his written statement to the House of Commons, Oliver Dowden highlighted sections of the civil service code relating to the political activity of civil servants.
He said: “Section 4.4.9 of the civil service management code sets out that all members of the senior civil service are in the ‘politically restricted’ category, which places further restrictions on their political activity.
“In addition, there is a requirement under the directory of civil service guidance, which underpins the civil service code, that ‘contacts between senior civil servants and leading members of the opposition parties … should … be cleared with … ministers.’
“The impartiality and perceived impartiality of the civil service is constitutionally vital to the conduct of government.”
Government puts Sue Gray departure inquiry on hold
The Cabinet Office has made a “confidential assessment” to the anti-corruption watchdog and will not provide further information on Sue Gray’s departure “whilst we consider next steps”, Oliver Dowden said.
Here is more from Dowden, who said that due to rules around employee confidentiality, he is “unable at this stage” to provide further details from the inquiry.
The deputy minister confirmed the Cabinet Office has made submissions to the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba), which provides advice on applications from senior civil servants who wish to take up appointments elsewhere, and can recommend a waiting period – something Labour has committed to abide by.
Gray accused of choosing ‘not to make representations’ to Cabinet Office inquiry into resignation
Oliver Dowden has just provided an update on the inquiry and said in a statement to parliament that the process “involved interviewing relevant persons” to establish “further details” on any communication between Sue Gray and Sir Keir Starmer.
However, Gray chose not to speak to the inquiry.
Dowden wrote: “On March 6 2023, Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General announced in reply to an Urgent Question that the Cabinet Office had been asked to look into the circumstances leading to the resignation of Sue Gray, the former Permanent Secretary for the Union and the Constitution and committed to update Parliament as appropriate.
“This process has involved interviewing relevant persons to establish further details on the contact between Ms Gray and the Leader of the Opposition.
“I can update the House that Ms Gray was given the opportunity to make representations as part of this process but chose not to do so.”
Newsnight’s Nicolas Watt has just tweeted on Oliver Dowden’s written ministerial statement on Sue Gray to parliament.
Oliver Dowden has released his written ministerial statement on Sue Gray to parliament. He says that Sue Gray declined to make representations into the enquiry looking into her contacts with Keir Starmer. Dowden says no further information while he considers the next steps
— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) May 2, 2023
Watt has also posted the two page statement.
The foreign secretary said he is Scotland’s “excellent advocate overseas” after he was accused of “sabotaging” the Scottish economy with his “draconian” rules on foreign trips.
James Cleverly was challenged in the Commons by the SNP foreign affairs spokesman, Drew Hendry, who suggested his new guidance to heads of mission abroad is sabotaging “vital economic activity” north of the border.
Hendry’s comments come after the foreign secretary asked diplomats to take a “strengthened approach” to Scottish ministerial visits, ensuring officials from the UK government are present during meetings with host governments.
Hendry told the Commons: “Scottish government minister Neil Gray MSP, along with agencies SDI (Scottish Development International) and HIE (Highlands and Islands Enterprise), have proved that direct foreign engagement works for Scotland by securing a £300m manufacturing investment for subsea cables in the renewables industry, working with Sumitomo in Osaka.
“It is a game changer that’s been welcomed across the Highlands. So why does the foreign secretary seek to sabotage such vital economic activity by instructing UK diplomatic staff to hinder Scottish government direct engagement?”
Cleverly replied: “The competences of the Scottish government and the reserved position of the UK government are clear. They are absolutely clear.
“And I would say to him and the house that Scotland has an excellent advocate overseas: it’s me.”
Cullen claims format for new strike ballot will increase chances of RCN members voting for further action
Andrew Sparrow
Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, has just given an interview to Radio 4’s PM programme.
Earlier she confirmed that the RCN is balloting its members again on strike action. (See 3.23pm.) Last time the union organised ballots by individual employment unit, which means some hospital trusts voted to strike and some didn’t. This time the RCN is holding a single ballot across the NHS as a whole.
The presenter Evan Davis suggested to Cullen that this would make it less likely for the RCN to get a majority in favour of further strike action. Cullen said the union disagreed. She said that last time many places voted in favour of a strike, but were thwarted because the turnout threshold (50% of members have to take part for a strike ballot to be valid) was not met.
Asked what would happen if the union did not vote for further strike action, Cullen said that would not stop the union campaigning for a better pay rise.
That is all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is taking over. He will be here to cover the Sue Gray report, when it finally arrives.
How unions on NHS staff council voted on NHS pay deal
Lawrence Dunhill, from the Health Service Journal, has got details of the vote by unions on the NHS staff council to accept the NHS pay offer.
There are 15 unions on the council, although only 12 of them have members covered by the agenda for change pay process and they were the ones that voted. Their votes were weighted according to how many NHS members they have.
Dunhill has this breakdown. He says 61% of weighted voters were in favour.
The two biggest unions are Unison (the biggest), which was in favour, and the Royal College of Nursing, which was against.
The other unions in favour were: the GMB, the British Association of Occupational Therapists, the Royal College of Midwives, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the British Orthoptic Society, the British Dietetic Association and the Federation of Clinical Scientists.
The other unions against were: Unite, the Society of Radiographers and the College of Podiatry.
Completed! 📯
For the Staff Council nerds (of which I’m now one 🧢)….61% of the weighted votes went in favour of the pay deal. pic.twitter.com/SkDHPCJLvD
— Lawrence Dunhill (@LawrenceDunhill) May 2, 2023
Steve Barclay says no complaints have been raised with him about his treatment of officials
Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has said that no complaints have been raised with him about his treatment of officials.
Asked about last week’s Guardian report saying officials from the Department of Health have “raised concerns” about his alleged conduct towards civil servants, Barclay told journalists:
Well, no complaints were raised with me.
But it’s important that we work constructively together. I hugely value the work officials within the department do.
He also said ministers and officials were “working very closely together”, as they had been over the weekend on issues like the NHS pay dispute and the evacuation of NHS medics from Sudan.
Grenfell Tower inquiry report not likely until 2024, survivors told, meaning prosecutions could be delayed until 2025
Robert Booth
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower disaster are facing a longer wait for justice than hoped after the public inquiry team said today it was unlikely to send its report to Rishi Sunak before 2024 – coming up to seven years after the fire that claimed 72 lives.
Quashing hopes that the report could be out this autumn, thereby allowing the Metropolitan police to progress towards conclusion on their criminal investigations, the inquiry said:
We shall send the report to the prime minister, as required by our terms of reference, as soon as we can but that will probably not be possible before the beginning of next year.
The prime minister will decide when the report will be published and by whom, but we are ready to act quickly if he asks us to publish it, as we think likely.
The panel and whole inquiry team will spare no effort to finish work on the report as soon as possible and will continue to do their utmost to complete the work within the time indicated.
One lawyer acting for the bereaved said it meant that the police might not now be in a position to make the case for criminal charges to be brought before 2025. Scotland Yard has said it will wait for the inquiry conclusion before making recommendations to the Crown Prosecution Service.
The report into the causes of the fire and the responsibilities of those involved is expected to be “substantially larger” than the 856-page 2019 phase one report into the night of the fire and the fire brigade response. The inquiry has disclosed more than 300,000 documents, obtained over 1,500 witness statements and has sat for more than 300 days.
Meanwhile, the high court heard confirmation on Tuesday that several organisations involved in the fire have agreed to pay £150m compensation to around 900 civil claimants.
Government should not be spending ‘exorbitant’ amount on coronation ‘pageant’, Plaid Cymru MSs tell Senedd
Steven Morris
Plaid Cymru politicians have strongly criticised the “exorbitant” cost of the coronation at a time when food banks are struggling to keep up with demand.
Speaking in the Senedd, Luke Fletcher, said the morality of spending £100m or more on a “pageant” when people were living in poor conditions in social housing, students were dropping out of education and people could not afford to feed their children or heat their homes had to be questioned. He said:
How can we justify spending on such extravagance when that is the state of the country? If we want to bring everyone together, sort out the problems rather than spending an exorbitant amount of money on a pageant.
Another Plaid MS (member of the Senedd) Sioned Williams said the food bank of which she was a trustee in Swansea Valley was sending out 40% more food parcels than this time last year. She went on:
This is the context in which the coronation ceremony is happening. It demonstrates the profound economic and geographical divides in our unequal disunited kingdom.
Mick Antoniw, the counsel general in the Welsh Labour government, said he recognised the picture the Plaid members painted and blamed the UK government’s policies. But he also said the coronation was a time for Wales to come together, adding:
There can be no doubt about the commitment his majesty has shown to this country, his interest in its people and culture and in our devolved institutions and parliament.
James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, told MPs that at least 22 of the 24 NHS doctors identified as being trapped in Sudan had been evacuated by the government.
In response to a question from David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, Cleverly said:
My understanding, and the Africa minister has given me the most up-to-date figures on this, is that 22 of the 24 that were identified have been directly evacuated by us.
It should be remembered that British nationals and others may well have made their own routes out of Sudan … we keep in close coordination both through the NHS and through direct conversation with us to ensure that we provide as full a service for those seeking evacuation as possible.
The Conservative MP Richard Drax told Cleverly he was concerned by reports that Britons travelling to the airport to get evacuation flights laid on by the government had been attacked and robbed. He asked why they were not given a military escort.
Cleverly replied:
The military practicalities of providing what to all intents and purposes would be an armed escort from multiple points around Khartoum and the surrounding areas to a single point of exit proved insurmountable – and that is true of our international partners as well as ourselves.
So no country in the world was able to provide that level of security arrangements. We kept under review the safety of the various routes from within Khartoum to Wadi Saeedna, and we advised that accordingly.
Unite says it is escalating strike action against pay deal despite NHS staff council voting for it
Unite was the other main health union to vote against the pay deal at the NHS staff council. Sharon Graham, its general secretary, says it will be escalating its strike action.
.@unitetheunion‘s #NHS members have spoken and they rejected the deal. Because of this, Unite used its seats on the staff council to also vote against it. In fact, we will be escalating strike action. 🧵1/3 https://t.co/tqtR9fWfRZ
— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) May 2, 2023
The staff council vote is not binding on individual unions and therefore the vote will not stop @unitetheunion representing the best interests of our members. #NHS 🧵2/3
— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) May 2, 2023
The current offer will not solve the huge issues surrounding understaffing that are destroying the #NHS and @unitetheunion‘s members have their union’s backing in fighting against it. It’s now time for the @GOVUK to reopen negotiations. The PM needs to solve this dispute. 🧵3/3
— Sharon Graham (@UniteSharon) May 2, 2023
RCN chief says it will go ahead with plan to ballot nurses on further strike action
The Royal College of Nursing is opposed to the government’s pay offer and it voted against it at the NHS staff council meeting today. But it was outvoted because most unions were in favour, including Unison, the union with most NHS members.
Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, has written to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, said that her union will carry on with its plan to ballot members on further strike action. She says:
I entirely respect those, in our membership and that of other unions, who voted to accept. However, that was not the prevailing view of nursing staff. Nursing is the largest part of the NHS workforce and they require an offer that matches their true value.
We understand the government’s intention now to pay the award to the NHS workforce as a whole. Though the pay offer was not enough for our members, I have repeatedly said that the government’s approach should be to build upon it and that remains our position.
Later this month, we will ballot 280,000 members in England’s NHS over further strike action to be held between June and December 2023. We will hold an aggregated ballot under the relevant legislation which, if supported by a sufficient number of RCN members, would provide the legal mandate to take strike action across the full NHS. Until this point, our strike action has been in approximately 50% of NHS trusts and other NHS employers.
Cullen also said she would like to continue talks with Barclay on pay. Barclay has said that the pay offer is final, but that he is open to talks on “workforce changes”. (See 2.38pm.)
Dave West, deputy editor of the Health Service Journal, says some NHS trust executives think support amongst nurses for prolonging their strike action is waning.
Will the RCN press on with strikes through the rest of the year?
Anecdotal reports from trusts over the weekend suggested enthusiasm was waning among their nurses for an ongoing long-running dispute. May just be wishful thinking, of course https://t.co/umy0eVlkx3
— Dave West (@Davewwest) May 2, 2023
NHS leaders welcome NHS staff council’s decision to back government pay offer
Organisations representing NHS leaders have welcomed the NHS staff council vote in favour of the pay deal.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:
Health leaders will welcome confirmation that the NHS staff council has voted as a majority to accept the government’s pay offer as it will give most NHS workers in England certainty about their pay after several months of negotiation and disruption.
It is now incumbent on the government to implement the deal as soon as possible and to make sure that local NHS leaders do not have to cover the increased cost from their existing budgets, failure to do this would have an extremely negative impact on patient care at a time when there are still millions of people on waiting lists …
Also, health leaders are concerned that with four trade unions remaining in dispute with the government over this deal that the worrying prospect of further industrial action remains. Added to that, health leaders are eager for a resolution to be agreed between the government and BMA as the last junior doctors strikes saw 196,000 appointments and planned procedures needing to be postponed.
And Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said:
Trust leaders are breathing a sigh of relief at today’s decision. We hope that this brings an end to the most disruptive period of industrial action in NHS history.
But the NHS isn’t out of the woods yet …
Industrial action over the past six months has led to more than 531,000 patient appointments being rescheduled, but we must remember that care backlogs stretch back long before strikes and the pandemic due to years of underfunding and many thousands of vacancies.
