Keir Starmer’s chief of staff is being paid a larger salary than the prime minister, it has emerged. But there’s also more to the story

For someone who is supposed to be a behind-the-scenes figure, Sue Gray has managed once again to appear at the centre of a political kerfuffle.

Keir Starmer’s chief of staff in the new Labour government, who went from backroom Whitehall fixer to being a household name as the investigator of Partygate, has been given a salary of £170,000 – about £3,000 more than the prime minister himself.