Keir Starmer: I had no contact with Sue Gray during Partygate inquiry

Labour leader says Boris Johnson ‘desperate’ to downplay Sue Gray’s report but refuses to say when he first approached her

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Keir Starmer has refused to say when he first approached Sue Gray to become his chief of staff, saying only that they had no contact while she was holding an inquiry into Downing Street parties and that “nothing improper at all” had happened.

News that Gray, a senior civil servant who wrote a report into No 10 parties involving Boris Johnson and his staff during lockdown last year, was joining Starmer’s team prompted surprise when it emerged last week.