Partygate investigator Sue Gray joins advisory firm with ex-footballer Gary Neville
Baroness Gray is Sir Keir Starmer's former chief of staff and is best known as the 'partygate' investigator who investigated Boris Johnson's lockdown antics.
She later became Permanent Secretary at the Department of Finance in Stormont.
Consello announced yesterday that Lady Sue had been appointed as Chair of Consello UK.
The former political aide and senior civil servant, who departed Starmer's Downing Street in October, will lead Consello's expansion in the UK and will start immediately.
Former Manchester United player Gary Neville is chairman of Consello Strive UK, which is part of the Consello group of companies, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The company has also hired US National Football League legend Tom Brady, and tennis champion Serena Williams.
Consello Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Declan Kelly said: 'Sue brings unparalleled insight from her decades of leadership in government service. Our entire team, as well as our clients, will benefit from her experience in countless ways.'
Lady Gray said: 'I'm delighted to have the opportunity to join the team at Consello. What Declan and his colleagues have accomplished in building the company to date is very impressive and I look forward to further supporting that growth in the UK and globally.'
In her maiden speech in the House of Lords in March, she joked about her old job in Northern Ireland, running a pub with her Portaferry husband in Newry during the Troubles. She said: 'On joining the Civil Service I was not on a mission to work my way to the top. This was probably best illustrated when I took a career break which has been much commented upon.
'Although the Civil Service encourages its future leaders to get outside experience, running a pub in Newry, County Down, in the late 80s was not on their list.'
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The Guardian
7 hours ago
- The Guardian
Civil service is ‘too remote' from people's lives across UK, says minister
The Whitehall civil service is too remote from people's lives and needs to be 'turned inside out' as part of plans to drive three of Keir Starmer's missions from outside London, a Cabinet Office minister has said. Georgia Gould, a former leader of Camden council who had a meteoric rise after her election as a Labour MP last year, said the government's plan to move thousands more civil service jobs out of London was not about just 'having offices in places' – and Whitehall civil servants needed to be more familiar with the day-to-day problems in frontline services from health centres to family hubs. She said her job was to help close the 'big gap between those doing the frontline operational roles and those who are making policies' by helping them to work together, share data and come up with new ideas about how to improve people's lives – especially those who 'fall through the cracks' of different public services. Gould told the Guardian that Whitehall working would be 'turned inside out', as the Cabinet Office announced Starmer's health mission would be based in Leeds, its opportunity mission in Sheffield and its growth mission in Darlington, with civil servants working with local government and frontline workers to pioneer new approaches. The Cabinet Office announced in May that major Whitehall government buildings were to be shut by ministers as they seek to shed 12,000 civil servant jobs in London, while moving thousands of roles to cities across the UK. It set a target of 50% of all senior civil servants being based outside London within five years, with the aim of policy being made closer to the communities affected. Gould said the speed of change needed to rise, as some regional campuses of civil servants were still too divorced from where their work had an impact. 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South Wales Guardian
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