As civil servants racked up bills for ballgowns, axe-throwing, fine wines and luxury island hotels, the person tasked with safeguarding standards in Whitehall was none other than Sue Gray.
Yes, that Sue Gray — Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff — who previously held one of the most powerful unelected roles in government as Director General for Propriety and Ethics, and later Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office.
This is the same Sue Gray who, remarkably, was tasked with investigating her own civil servants partying in Whitehall — while she was supposedly responsible for upholding standards across the Civil Service. She wasn’t just meant to enforce the rules, but to embody the very spirit of public service.
(While we’re at it let’s set the record straight: It WASN’T Boris partying during lockdown—it was the CIVIL SERVANTS under Sue Gray’s watch! Read here.)
But of course while she was “overseeing standards,” another scandal was quietly growing. During her tenure, spending on Government Procurement Cards (GPCs) didn’t just creep up — it exploded. In just four years, GPC spending quadrupled, surging from £155 million in 2020-21 to £675 million in 2024-25. All charged to the British taxpayer.
Let’s be blunt: this didn’t happen in a vacuum. It all happened on Sue Gray’s watch, when she was supposed to be the guardian of standards and propriety in government. If this is the “gold standard” of integrity that Labour used to try and boast about, taxpayers should be very concerned.
The Telegraph’s investigation into Government Procurement Cards spending reads like the script of a political satire. Among the grotesque highlights:
- £906 at Zizzi, £636 at Pizza Express, and £500 on an ice cream van.
- £2,258 at a Belgian adventure park, and a £3,267 stay in the Turks and Caicos.
- £6,914 spent at Fortnum & Mason, £500 on dresses at a Chelsea ballgown rental shop, and £43,000 on home-working equipment—in one department alone.
- £858 on Myers-Briggs personality tests, and £1,700 on “Project Charisma”, a public speaking coaching service.
Of course now it’s all been made public the Government now promises a crackdown. Some 20,000 cards are set to be frozen, and civil servants will be required to reapply under new, tighter rules. But that’s shutting the stable door long after the Fortnum’s catering truck has bolted.
We should ask: where was the scrutiny before public money started flowing to dry cleaners in the UAE and luxury hotels in Tokyo?
At the time this spree was gathering steam, Sue Gray was one of the most senior figures in Whitehall, tasked explicitly with upholding standards. As the official responsible for ethics, she had extraordinary influence over how departments managed propriety. So where was the oversight? Where was the whistleblowing culture? The value-for-money ethos? The robust challenge to departmental indulgence?
Her defenders may argue that Sue Gray wasn’t signing off on individual transactions. True. But the job of Director General for Propriety and Ethics isn’t about approving expense claims—it’s about setting the tone for the entire Civil Service, reinforcing the principles of integrity, accountability, and restraint.
And clearly, that tone was not being set.
The result? A Civil Service that has become bloated, entitled and disconnected from the people it serves. Today we have 546,000 civil servants—the highest number since the Blair years—and declining productivity, all while taxpayers foot the bill for ballgowns and wagyu burgers.
Even more damning, some of this happened as a senior civil servant in Defra juggled three full-time jobs remotely, defrauding the system while his colleagues dined out on the public purse.
After condemning Boris Johnson in her kangaroo court-style report, Sue Gray promptly embedded herself at the heart of Starmer’s Labour machine. Following reported disagreements behind the scenes, she quietly exited and was duly rewarded with a peerage in the House of Lords. Something stinks.
By Jack Lions.
Worth Reading: Telegraph investigation itemises the astonishing bills racked up by civil servants at the taxpayers’ expense.
Main Image: For illustration purposes only. Image created by Grok.
