Sir Keir Starmer’s top adviser is “getting the right pay for the job” despite reports she earns £3,000 more than the prime minister, former Labour MP Harriet Harman has said.
The Baroness, now a peer and the co-host of Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, said Sue Gray’s reported salary of more than £170,000 is “the rate for the job”.
A row erupted within government on Wednesday when it was claimed Sir Keir’s chief of staff received a pay rise after the general election in July, apparently taking her salary above the prime minister’s. Sir Keir is paid £167,000 annually.
Baroness Harman has defended Ms Gray’s salary, telling the podcast she is an “incredibly able person” who is being “paid the rate for the job”.
She said: “The cabinet secretary earns £200,000. The guy who runs Manchester City Council gets £220,000.
“You might think all this public service pay is too high, but actually she is getting the right pay for the job and she is an exceptionally talented person to be doing that job.”
In a regional media round on Thursday, Sir Keir insisted he is “completely in control” despite the row.
The prime minister was asked why Ms Gray was getting paid more than him, and told BBC South East: “I’m not going to get into discussions about individual salaries about any members of my staff. I’m sure you wouldn’t expect me to.”
Pressed on whether he had a grip on his team following briefings on the matter, Sir Keir said: “I’m completely in control. I’m focused and every day the message from me to the team is exactly the same, which is we have to deliver.”
Baroness Harman said the real worry is that “people ‘within Downing Street’ are briefing and putting that pay into the public domain”.
She said the prime minister “will be wanting to work out who is doing this briefing because that is a breach of the ministerial code”.
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Former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, who co-hosts Electoral Dysfunction with Baroness Harman and our political editor Beth Rigby, described the briefing as a “proper drive by”.
She said: “This was somebody who decided they’re going to do her in, they were going to absolutely take her out at the knees. They put it together, they gift-wrapped it in a bow and put it on a shiny silver platter.
“And they delivered it to, in this case, the BBC. And they knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew the time that they were doing it, just before party conference.”
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Revelations over Ms Gray’s high pay could be embarrassing for Sir Keir after he previously criticised the scale of Dominic Cummings’ salary, who was Boris Johnson’s chief of staff.
The government does not deny the salary level but insists she did not set the level of her salary herself – which is higher than her predecessor.
However, this has been challenged by figures familiar with the process. They said successive chiefs of staff who preceded Ms Gray had to agree to recommendations on adviser pay and advise on the decisions made by ministers.
