'You don't say no to her' Sue Gray, from Partygate to Labour party player

There is one woman Labour donors are even more keen to meet than Rachel Reeves, even though it is now Labour lore that tickets to the party's business day with the shadow chancellor sold out faster than Taylor Swift tickets. That woman is Sue Gray. Everyone wants to meet the power behind the throne.

- Jessica Elgot, Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason

Gray was once a fabled Whitehall figure, whose reputation as the guardian of government ethics was unmatched among civil servants but barely known by the public. That changed when she became the public face of the investigation into Partygate the flagrant breaking of Covid rules by officials under and including Boris Johnson. Then, in March 2023, Gray sensationally departed Whitehall to become Keir Starmer's chief of staff.

But in the next five weeks she will take a backseat to Morgan McSweeney, the strategy guru who is the only senior staff member to rival Gray in influence. Since Rishi Sunak announced the election date, Gray has been focused primarily on the second round of access talks with the civil service in preparation for if and when - if the polls are right - Labour forms the next government.

However, the separation of government and politics is not so simple. In recent months, Gray had joined the election planning meetings led by McSweeney and the campaign coordinator Pat McFadden. She and McSweeney still speak daily, and there are areas of overlap including the party's handling of the row around the veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott.

"Sue doesn't see things through the eyes of voters - she hasn't ever needed to," said one Labour figure on the operation's political wing. "She's the chief of staff but Morgan is running the show for this bit."

Until Gray's arrival, McSweeney retained a near unrivalled closeness to the leader. Starmer's original chief of staff, the ex-MP Jenny Chapman, was his biggest champion, but her style alienated some MPs and she was moved to sit in the shadow cabinet as a peer.