Sir Keir Starmer will be able to appoint Sue Gray as his chief of staff in the autumn after government advisers rejected calls for her to be banned from the role for more than a year.
The Times has been told the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) has recommended Gray, a former senior civil servant, should take just six months’ gardening leave.
A report by senior officials recommended Gray should be barred from the role for a year, with a further six-month block on her contacting the government. It claimed that Gray had breached the civil service code on two counts by failing to act with honesty, integrity and impartiality in her dealing with Starmer and Labour.
The imposition of 18 months’ worth of
