[Crabcakes]

The whole Sue Grey thing is bonkers. It could only be funnier if it turned out that it was the Tories who inadvertently pushed her into taking the Labour job through their own snobbishness and pettiness…

…and lo and behold, they did!

[Tubby Isaacs]

Alex Nunns seems to have accused Sue Gray of spying on the IRA there, with no evidence at all. Fortunately nobody accused of spying on the IRA has ever come to harm.

Could someone on Continuity Corbyn Team maybe challenge this?

[MisterMuncher]

Fairly amusing to see Newry described as an "IRA stronghold", given that there's so many places within spitting distance that definitely hold the title much more convincingly, for example the town she was driving to and from on the night.

[mattomac]

Nunns is still bitter he is off the gravy train payroll.

Any clue what he actually does now?

I was wondering about Sue Gray, you know how those on the right like to act the victim when they’ve been a piece of shit and it happens to blow up in their face, well it might be worth some of the Labour MPs to call out and suggest that the attitude towards Gray is sexist after all it’s mainly white upper class men spouting this bollocks.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Dan Hodges has a devastating angle. Sue Gray didn’t answer the phone when some unnamed official rang. This apparently means there are questions she didn’t follow procedures. He doesn’t tell us what these are.

She’s said to be doing the formal meeting tmrw. I assume the government has to pay if she’s made to wait to take up the new job? That would not be a popular use of money, I’m sure.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Full-pay gardening leave.

[mattomac]

There was one Tory Mp suggesting it should be two years with no pay.

Obviously lives in the real world.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think Alex Nunns has deleted.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I see Starmer’s previous chief of staff didn’t resign till November, about 7 months after Gray finished the report.

On balance I think it was unlikely that she had discussed a job that wasn’t available while writing the report.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Tory backbenchers going in incredibly hard still. I would be surprised if Sue Gray broke any rules, but they seem to be sure she has.

[RedSparrows]

Even if she has they don't give a fuck about the rules ANYWAY. It's all just the conceit desperately defending itself. Johnson, lockdowns, vaccines, etc etc etc - defend it all, trigger the libs, keep the trough full.

[davidjay]

Even if she has they don't give a fuck about the rules ANYWAY. It's all just the conceit desperately defending itself. Johnson, lockdowns, vaccines, etc etc etc - defend it all, trigger the libs, keep the trough full.

And keep the narrative that they're all the same.

[Andy McDandy]

The Tory backbenchers going in incredibly hard still. I would be surprised if Sue Gray broke any rules, but they seem to be sure she has.

See also Simon Case's "conservative ideology" comment about reopening businesses. Apparently this is a sign of his leftiness, although a) it was in a conversation with Hancock, and b) nobody criticising him has said that it isn't conservative ideology. Or that it was a bad thing. Or that they themselves weren't agitating for businesses to reopen.

Seems to me that what they really hate is any kind of scrutiny at all. Especially from the help.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Guardian has said that the appointment was announced before ACOBA made its decision. It was leaked. If Starmer did that, he could be in trouble. But no evidence he did.

[Crabcakes]

The Tory backbenchers going in incredibly hard still. I would be surprised if Sue Gray broke any rules, but they seem to be sure she has.

They’re going in hard because it’s shit or bust time. If Johnson is questioned on TV by that committee he’s either going to make them all look as corrupt as he is, or he’ll lose it and go full scorched Earth. He hated the smallest bit of scrutiny- this, for him, will be both excruciating and humiliating, and he will absolutely blame anyone and everyone else *and* be incandescent that they dare let it happen to him.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, that could be it.

But trying to think who leaked it to Sky, seems more likely it would be Labour than the government, given that Sunak had had a good week. That’s my worry with this.

[Crabcakes]

Yeah, that could be it.

But trying to think who leaked it to Sky, seems more likely it would be Labour than the government, given that Sunak had had a good week. That’s my worry with this.

Well it could be. But the person who has the most to gain from discrediting Sue Grey, and the standards committee, and who has it in for Sunak and won’t want him to have a good week, and who won’t give two shits what the collateral damage will be, and who has a history of trying desperate, grasping at straws bullshit AND is horrendously arrogant and doesn’t think the rules should apply to him is one B. Johnson.

He still (inexplicably) has mates who will have found out. One of them could easily have suggested it be leaked to tarnish Rishi’s half-decent showing.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Would Bozo know though?

[Oboogie]

Would Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg know?

[Tubby Isaacs]

How would he find out?

Someone could have seen Gray meeting Labour, I suppose.