“Is this proof the Daily Mail is just a Conservative lie dispenser? Yes it is.

The Daily Mail is once more being roasted over one of its front pages. This time the paper is having a meltdown over Sue Gray’s appointment as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, and ran a headline claiming the appointment was proof that the ‘partygate probe was a Labour plot’.

Senior civil servant Gray took on the civil service investigation into allegations of coronavirus rule-breaking at No 10 in December 2021. Her 60-page report revealed highly-damaging details of the Partygate saga and attacked Number 10 over a “failure of leadership”.

Yet despite all the evidence of rule breaking at Downing Street, the Daily Mail is now claiming that the entire probe into partygate was a left-wing stitch up.

The unhinged headline was rightly called out on social media, with ITV’s Robert Peston tweeting: “It is theoretically possible I suppose that Keir Starmer is that much of a fiendish genius – a politician Moriarty – but somehow I doubt it.”

Another social media user wrote: “FFS! Not unless a “Starmer Industries” microchip had been secretly implanted in Boris Johnson’s brain! Johnson signed off the inquiry before it was released to the public. Not even a nice try.”

One Twitter user summed it up perfectly: “Is this proof the Daily Mail is just a Conservative lie dispenser? Yes it is.

“Immoral shithouses.”

Gray reportedly resigned from her role as second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office with immediate effect on Thursday afternoon, and is hoping to join Sir Keir Starmer as he prepares for next year’s general election campaign.

Labour said Sir Keir is “delighted” that Ms Gray intends to take up the role but accepted the appointment is subject to the “normal procedures”.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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