An air of controversy has rocked PM Keir Starmer’s start in government, Sue Gray’s resignation leaving him with an image of instability. A new Chief of Staff has been recruited and Sue Gray has stepped back from her prevalence in Downing Street.

After accusations of micromanagement and undermining, the decision has been taken for Gray to resign from her position of Chief of Staff. She will now become the new Prime Minister’s envoy for the ‘regions and nations’. This comes three months after Starmer entered office after a landslide victory in the 4th July election.

This position has been replaced by Morgan McSweeney, previous political aide to the Prime Minister, and credited with helping to construct Labour’s win in the summer. McSweeney will be joined with two deputy chiefs of staff, Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson. Together, they will be in charge of managing staff and other senior advisers.

The civil service and non-elected aspect of the government often relies on loyalty and the balance of power. In keeping with this, there have been suggestions that an imbalance was previously in place while Sue Gray and Morgan McSweeney were working together.

BBC political reporter Paul Seddon commented on the restructuring of the Labour government, ‘the Downing Street operation … is also a more fragmented organisation with more recent teams … sitting alongside more long standing ones’.

Further changes have undergone behind closed doors in Downing Street, with a new strategic communications team and Nin Pandit will step into the role of Starmer’s principal private secretary. This will entail a large level of responsibility for managing development of ministers’ policies and the implementation by the civil service in departments.

In the midst of this controversy, former deputy Labour leader Baroness Harriet Hardman, commented that ‘missteps’ and ‘clunkiness’ are likely with the new government. While Starmer’s spokesperson said on the restructuring that it was ‘right to reflect on the first few weeks and months in office’.

Despite this not being as drastic as a government reshuffle in the first few months of office, it is significant to Starmer’s operations behind closed doors and how his government will run. Whether this can stay consistent with his goals of stability and integrity, remains to be found out.

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