| Picture the scene: the Tory party at their bonding exercise pub quiz, fresh from discussing the next election, fist-bumping the Windsor framework, when their mobiles must have started leaping with news that Sue Gray, partygate judge, had jumped ship. Gray's departure to the Labour Party looks to be a coup for Keir Starmer. Most civil servants' movements are "bubble stories" but not hers. Her name became known down the Dog & Duck. She became a meme. I'm sure at the back of some people's cupboards there are mugs with "We're waiting for Sue Gray" written on them.  Sue Gray Photographer: Steve Back/Getty Images Europe Labour folk I knew in government before 2010 always spoke highly of Gray, and when I came to know her more than a decade later, she was frank, quick, warm, tough. I have a friend working out in the most far flung windiest, wildest part of Scotland who got a call one day from the second Perm Secretary at the Department for Levelling Up: "Sue Gray wants to visit." And so she did. She finds things out for herself. No wonder she considered Keir's offer. But sadly for fans of Gray who want her to be everything her reputation implies — and yes, that includes senior Conservatives — her departure is troubling. When former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke, who had a ring-side seat in the Truss era, says he is "shocked," that's a pretty good gauge of how complicated this is. It isn't just about party politics but about how our government works. The idea that you can go straight from being one of the most senior civil servants in the land, integral in a government's approach to a host of sensitive issues, to being chief of staff to the leader of the opposition just doesn't fit. Alex Thomas of the Institute for Government and a former civil servant across a number of departments says that not only does this give critics of Whitehall a "stick," but begs the question: How can she "unknow" information she has spent years amassing at the heart of government? Spare a thought for government officials who fiercely believe in the principle of an impartial civil service and the concept you keep the show on the road, when the political lot get booted out. By the way, many of these staffers spoke to Gray for her Partygate inquiry because she was the epitome of impartial. Today they may be feeling bruised. Trust is the glue, and after Gray's departure — it is weaker. Then, yes, the politics of it all: Boris Johnson. Alexander Stafford. Nadine Dorries. Jacob Rees-Mogg. Tory MPs now impugning her motive when investigating the No.10 parties. Personally I think this is far-fetched, but I do think it is reasonable they ask the question. If the week began with Boris Johnson seeming deflated, it has most certainly ended with him coming out swinging. Sue Gray is a loss to government. Let's hope too much else isn't lost to government — principles of impartiality and trust — by the time this all comes to a conclusion. The quality and cost of early-years child care have important implications for a nation, from the size of its economy to the performance of students in high school and university. One of the most significant payoffs of a successful child care system is higher female workforce participation. Conversely, mothers' careers bear the brunt of inadequate child care or parental-leave policies. In the UK, the unaffordable cost of child care has women increasingly leaving the labor force and is emerging as a major political issue. | 
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