Sue Gray in fresh row as her son runs to become a Labour MP
SUE Gray’s son is running to try to become the Labour MP for a plum seat at the next General Election.
Labour activist Liam Conlon is battling to be the candidate for Beckenham and Penge in south London.
The news comes just months after The Sun on Sunday revealed claims he had been boasting that he was being “groomed” for a safe Labour seat.
Furious Tory MPs last night said it raises fresh questions over Ms Gray’s impartiality when she was at the civil service.
The former partygate inquisitor — who hauled former Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the coals for breaking lockdown rules — quit her role as a mandarin earlier this year to run Sir Keir Starmer’s office.
Tory MP Paul Bristow said: “First Sue Gray quits the so-called impartial civil service to run Labour’s head office.
“Now we hear that her son is trying to get selected to be a Labour MP. I should be surprised, but sadly I’m not.
“This raises questions about whether Sue Gray was ever truly impartial. Could she have been when her open flesh and blood was busy trying to get a seat at the next election.”
Westminster’s ethics watchdog cleared Ms Gray in June to take up the position working for the Labour leader — finding that she did not break impartiality rules.
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Ms Gray is one of Sir Keir’s most senior aides, in charge of preparing the Labour Party for power.
Earlier this year, The Sun on Sunday revealed that Mr Conlon had been harbouring ambitions to bag a seat in Westminster.
The news came after he was seen out on the campaign trail trying to oust Mr Johnson from his then seat of Uxbridge in west London.
Speaking back in March, a Labour insider said: “Sue Gray’s son has been out on the campaign trail trying to unseat Boris.
“Apparently he was boasting to activists on the doorstep saying he was her son, that she had carried out the Partygate probe, and that he is being groomed for a safe Labour seat.”
Beckenham and Penge is a new parliamentary seat, and is expected to be a safe Labour seat when it is contested at the next election