Cabinet minister: ‘Bound to be missteps’ in early days of Starmer’s government

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh defended the Prime Minister’s decision to remove Sue Gray from her role as chief of staff.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has reshuffled officials in Downing Street (Benjamin Cremel/PA) (PA Wire)

Sir Keir Starmer’s “young government” could make further mistakes, a Cabinet minister admitted following the ousting of Sue Gray as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

The Prime Minister chaired Cabinet on Tuesday for the first time since shaking up his team of senior advisers and replacing Ms Gray with Morgan McSweeney after weeks of leaks and hostile briefing about the No 10 operation.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said there were “bound to be missteps” during the early days of a new administration.

Sir Keir discussed the change of personnel in Downing Street at Cabinet as he stressed the Government was focused on “delivering the change that he was elected to deliver”, Number 10 said.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “He did briefly speak about the appointment made, consistently with the statement that was put out over the weekend… and in the context of the Cabinet discussion on delivering for the country, delivering on the change that he was elected to deliver.”

Mr McSweeney was in the room for the Cabinet meeting, although he had previously attended in his former role anyway.

The signs of discontent within Sir Keir’s inner circle, within 100 days of taking office, continued despite Ms Gray being removed from the heart of No 10.

An ally of Ms Gray told The Times she had been the victim of an “out-of-control group” of senior male advisers who felt threatened by her.

“Either Starmer wasn’t across what was going on or he was and he let them do it. Frankly neither is a good look,” the unnamed ally said.

“You simply can’t have a lot of out-of-control special advisers ousting a chief of staff.”

Ms Haigh denied that Sir Keir had a problem with women, a charge levelled against him publicly by former Labour MP Rosie Duffield.

“I am a senior woman in the Cabinet and I sit in front of you as the youngest ever woman to sit in any British cabinet,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“We have the first female Chancellor (Rachel Reeves), we have a female Deputy Prime Minister (Angela Rayner), we are gender balanced as a Cabinet and we have more women Labour MPs than the Tories have MPs in total.

“So I just don’t recognise those characterisations at all.

“There are a lot of feisty women around that Cabinet table who, as I am sure you will appreciate, absolutely make their voices heard and their views known.”

Defending the decision to replace Ms Gray – who she described as an “exceptional public servant” – Ms Haigh said it was “right that the operations of Downing Street are reviewed and that they properly support the delivery of Government”.

She told Sky News: “This is a young Government, there is bound to be missteps in the first few months. Very few of us have served in Government before.

“We have got 14 years of opposition and 14 years of a juggernaut to turn around.”

Asked if further mistakes may occur, she said: “No government is perfect and I am not going to sit here today and promise you there is going to be no mistakes made.”