Sue Gray will not take up new regions role

Sue Gray will not take up her post as the prime minister’s envoy to the nations and regions, Downing Street has confirmed.

She was initially appointed to the newly-created role after departing as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff last month, saying she “risked becoming a distraction”.

The government had previously said she was taking a short break before starting her new position.

But a No 10 spokeswoman said she had “now decided not to take it up”.

The news was first reported by the Financial Times and the Guardian.

The BBC has been told the PM had decided to withdraw Ms Gray’s job offer and that the cabinet secretary, the country’s most senior civil servant, had spoken to her to confirm this.

This chain of events is not disputed by other figures in government.

But the BBC has been told Ms Gray is adamant it was her decision and she never spoke directly to Sir Keir about it.

A friend of Ms Gray said: “Sue has taken a decision not to take the role. She’s going to focus on other things.”

They added: “She’s taken time to think about it properly, talking to stakeholders, but ultimately she’s decided she doesn’t want to do it.”

A Downing Street source said: “We think she has made the right decision.”

It appears the prime minister had grown tired of Ms Gray’s failure to actually start the paid, part-time job that she had been demoted into when she left Downing Street.

Given 38 days had gone by since it was publicly known she had been offered the new role, it had been clear for some time that she did not want to do it.

One insider said: “We all thought [the envoy role] was a bad idea that would lead to endless drama and probably another resignation down the line.”

A No 10 spokeswoman said there were “no immediate plans” to appoint a new envoy to the nations and regions, but the role would be kept “under review”.

The spokeswoman added that Ms Gray had been “uniquely placed” to hold the position, but working with the nations and regions remained a “huge priority” for the government.

Downing Street had previously said the job would be “vital”.

However, it had not published details of Ms Gray’s new responsibilities, and last month she did not attend the first-ever meeting of a new Council of Nations and Regions.

Ms Gray left as the PM’s chief of staff after just three months in the role, following weeks of negative headlines and briefings against her, including a row over her salary.

She was replaced by Morgan McSweeney, with whom she had reportedly clashed in his previous role as Sir Keir’s chief political adviser.

Ms Gray, who became a household name after leading the government’s internal inquiry into the Partygate scandal, left the civil service to become a senior adviser to Sir Keir last year.