London Playbook PM: Happy equal pay day, Sue!

Good afternoon. This is Mason Boycott-Owen, holding the Playbook PM pen proper for the first time.
— A bitter briefing war over Sue Gray’s pay is in full flow.
— Labour types are popping off left right and center, while the Tories leap on the revelations.
— Train drivers in the Aslef union backed a pay deal after years of action.
— The two big parties traded barbs over whether the economy is good or not.
— Boris Johnson is off on a book tour.
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HAPPY EQUAL PAY DAY: The new Labour government marked international equal pay day by … tearing chunks out of each other over Sue Gray’s salary.
Yep: Mere days before Labour’s annual conference, government “sources” are briefing some explosive stuff about each other to the press. Never change, guys.
What’s the story? This afternoon the BBC’s Chris Mason and Henry Zeffman got the scoop that Gray, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, is actually on more money (£170,000) than the prime minister (£167,000). This comes from “a number of Whitehall sources” according to the Beeb. 
Killer line: “It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story,” one catty character told the BBC. “She declined.” 
Pushback: A government official said that this particular claim is “categorically untrue,” adding: “Sue Gray had no involvement in any decision on her pay. She was informed of her salary after this had been set.”
Unrivaled capacity for factionalism: As they tend to do, a “senior Labour source” calmed things down by telling the Sunday Times’ Gabriel Pogrund: “Sue Gray is the only pensioner better off under Labour.” Pew pew. 
Tories, pounce: The Tories are, naturally, leaping on the story. They fired off a release to hacks calling on Labour to answer a mighty 10 questions about a salary that allows Gray “to be paid more than her Conservative predecessors.” They are pointing out that all of this has come out at the same time as the winter fuel payment cuts. 
It’s all about Sue (it’s about Sue): Who could have possibly seen all of this bad blood coming? Well, as it turns out, a lot of people. Last month POLITICO did a deep dive into how those who have “crossed swords” with the former civil servant may now have an ax to grind. The BBC picks up similar big annoyances over the pay of rank-and-file special advisers and apparent delays to appointments. 
Captain foresight: While we’re on the question of “who could have seen this coming?” team POLITICO has been getting texts pondering quite how a prime minister who campaigned on ethics, advised by a chief of staff who used to be the government’s head of ethics, has managed to get bogged down in so many ethics controversies since getting the keys to No. 10. 
Zing 2: A former colleague of Gray tells Esther Webber that Gray’s background means she ought to be “wired to look for scandal” and yet “within the first 100 days, the scandals keep coming.”
They added: “[No.10] are so holier than thou. The only thing that unites No.10 as a team is that they think that they’re better than everybody else, but that means they also think that they’re better than each other.”
Zing 3: In response to the Beeb story, a Labour aide tells Playbook’s Stefan Boscia: “Wow. She really is bad at politics.”
Case for the defense: “If Sue Gray does a good job then £170k is pretty cheap,” argued columnist David Aaronovitch. “Some of the people fulminating about it on the airwaves are paid considerably more.”
Still: This kind of open warfare doesn’t exactly do anyone any favors in the run-up to party conference. Playbook asked No. 10 if it will be doing a bit of inquiring into who is responsible for such regular, bad tempered, and potentially damaging leaks against members of the government. No details yet.
Timing is everything: Rachel Reeves is doing her bit to mark equal pay day properly. The chancellor will this evening host “some very powerful women” to talk about “ending the gender pay gap, strengthening rights at work and investing in childcare.” Treasury release on that one here.
TRAIN DRIVER PAY: Bumper paydays/fair recompense for tireless graft (delete according to political persuasion) are coming down the tracks too for members of the Aslef rail union. They voted by 96 percent to accept a pay deal worth a 15 percent rise over three years. It puts to bed a two-year dispute that’s hit 16 rail companies.
Next one to watch: The RMT is also very close to a reaching a pay deal with the government, Playbook’s Dan Bloom texts in. The Department for Transport will give rail firms the mandate to hike salaries by 4.75 percent in 2023/24 and 4.5 percent in 2024/25, while Network Rail can raise pay by 4.5 percent in 2024. 
Watching *very* closely … will be CCHQ and other critics of the new government’s approach to pay deals, given the RMT has recommended members accept. Details were sent to the rail staff union this week and a referendum will follow.
INFLATIONWANG: Wrangling over the economy continues following today’s inflation figures, as Labour and the Tories do battle over how bad things really are.
Reminder: This morning’s data from the ONS showed that consumer price inflation remains steady at 2.2 per cent, hovering just above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, but still much lower than the worrying heights of 11 per cent in October 2022. 
Choose your own adventure: Inflation used to be quite a big deal under Rishi Sunak, with the then-chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, out on the airwaves back in the day to sing the praises of “sticking to the plan.” Even with similar data, we’ve got no such word from Rachel Reeves. Darren Jones was out saying the government knows the pressure families are under. It’s a markedly different tone.
Bad for business: Labour’s repeated pummeling of the Tory record was effective during the election. But some business chiefs feel there needs to be a bit more sunshine. Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI’s chief executive, suggested that being sensible with the public finances can be done “in a more positive way.”
Talk up Britain: Newton-Smith said executives “want to see politicians talking up the U.K.’s status as a place to live, work and do business, not get lost in the kind of signaling that could deter international investors.”
Doom and gloom: A Tory official tells Playbook PM: “Their [Labour’s] manufactured doom and gloom narrative is downright damaging, with even the CBI saying it will deter international investors — the opposite of what the country needs.” 
It was us wot won it: Jeremy Hunt has already been claiming that the current low inflation is something Labour “inherited” — and reckons “damaging new employment rights” could unsteady the ship. 
Bank rate decision: Tomorrow the Bank of England will make another call on whether to cut interest rates. Today’s statistics make it seem unlikely the Bank will change its cautious approach to cutting rates. Either way we’ll get their decision at 12 p.m.
RESHUFFLE KLAXON: The Liberal Democrats reshuffled their top team following the party’s conference — with 25 new-intake MPs getting roles. Daisy Cooper remains deputy leader but has been promoted to Treasury spokesperson, with Helen Morgan taking her place in health. Newbies Lisa Smart and Calum Miller have been moved straight to top jobs on home affairs and foreign affairs respectively. 
POST-EMPLOYMENT: Nick Read, the Post Office chief executive, will resign from his role in March next year. His time in the job has been dominated by the Horizon scandal. Read is due to give evidence to the inquiry into the saga next month. 
NEW EMPLOYMENT: There’s a new gig for Sajid Javid, the former home secretary who stood down as an MP at the election. He is the new chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. 
HIPPY BASHING: Wes Streeting took aim at the left of his party yet again. The lad just cannot resist. The health secretary, during a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: “The Left have to accept health service reform or there will be no health service, at least not as we currently recognize it.” 
LAMMY ABROAD: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was in Norway today meeting the country’s foreign minister to discuss deepening the country’s security collaboration. 
REMEMBER ME? Nicola Sturgeon popped up today to talk about the anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum. She told BBC Scotland News that he reckons Scotland will still become an independent country and expressed frustration at the “brick wall of Westminster democracy-denial.” Current First Minister John Swinney said he reckons independence is closer than ever.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Boris Johnson’s off on a book tour to “to reveal what really happened during my time as Mayor, Foreign Secretary and PM.” He’s promising a signed copy with every ticket.
STANDING ROOM ONLY: Backbench Labour MPs hoping to get a seat at Keir Starmer’s big conference speech will have to use sharp elbows to get in, Playbook’s Bethany Dawson hears. They’ve been told in a briefing that there’ll only be 100 seats reserved for them. A bit of a fall from grace for those candidates-turned-MPs who were sat gleefully behind the Labour leader last year.
STARMALA? Playbook hears No. 10 is trying to bolt a trip to meet both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on to the PM’s jaunt to the United Nations General Assembly next week. It remains to be seen whether Downing Street can pull it off, with both presidential candidates on a relentless campaigning schedule.
MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Thousands of hand-held communications devices exploded in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, according to multiple media reports. Explosions were heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut, as well as the cities of Nabatieh, Tyre and Saida in southern Lebanon, The Guardian reported from the Lebanese capital. 
Part 2: The explosions appear to be the second part of an operation which began Tuesday afternoon with the explosions of Hezbollah pager devices, which killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 3,000. Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against Israeli artillery posts in its first cross-border attack since the blasts.
Origin story: Sky has done a deep dive into the Budapest firm linked to the pagers. Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said the company has “no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary” — more from POLITICO’s Seb Starcevic.
UKRAINE UPDATE: Kyiv carried out a destructive drone attack against a critical Russian mission site northwest of Moscow, a senior Security Service of Ukraine official told my colleague Veronika Melkozerova. They said the attack wiped “off the face of the earth a large warehouse of the main missile and artillery department” belonging to the Russian defense ministry.
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LEADING THE NEWS BULLETINS: Channel 5 News (5 p.m.), BBC News at Six and Channel 4 News (7 p.m.) all lead on developments in Lebanon.
Tom Swarbrick at Drive (LBC, until 6 p.m.): Former U.K.Ambassador to the United Nations Mark Lyall-Grant (5.05 p.m.).
Drive with John Pienaar (Times Radio, until 7 p.m.): Tory peer James Arbuthnot … former U.K. Ambassador to Iran Nicholas Hopton … Middle East analyst Aaron David Miller … the Express’ Sam Lister and the Mirror’s Mikey Smith (both 6 p.m.).
Tonight With Andrew Marr (LBC, 6 p.m.): Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak … Labour MP Stella Creasy … Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar … Alba MSP Ash Regan … former MI6 Director of Operations and Intelligence Nigel Inkster … former Israeli National Security Council member Orna Mizrahi.
Iain Dale (LBC, 7 p.m.): Health Secretary Wes Streeting (7 p.m.) … former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond (7.35 a.m.) … Tory leadership contender James Cleverly phone-in (9 p.m. until 10 p.m.).
Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (Sky News, 7 p.m.): Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat.
Cross Question with Iain Dale (LBC, 8 p.m.): Tory peer Nicky Morgan … Lib Dem Justice spokesperson Josh Babarinde … businessman David Buik.
Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation (GB News, 8 p.m.): Former Tory MP John Redwood … historian Tessa Dunlop … former Labour spokesperson James Matthewson.
TWEETING TOMORROW’S PAPERS TONIGHT: Jack Surfleet.
REVIEWING THE PAPERS TONIGHT: Times Radio (10.30 p.m.): Broadcaster Carolyn Quinn and Talk’s Peter Cardwell … Sky News (10.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m.): The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire and the Telegraph’s Annabel Denham.
ON THE GRID: The government’s talking about help for small businesses.
BANK ON IT: The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee offers up its latest interest rates decision at noon.
THE RIGHT STUFF: Policy Exchange hosts an event on future of the right with Stephen Harper, ex-Canada PM.
CLADDING: The first cladding remediation figures since the Grenfell report are published by the government.
ECONOMY: Top wonks at the OECD publish their interim economic outlook.
**Tune in to the trade policy chatter during party conference season. As the U.K.’s political parties gather to discuss their priorities, trade policy could be part of the conversation – and you shouldn’t be missing out. Get on-the-ground insights from our London newsroom in our exclusive POLITICO Pro Debrief on September 19 at 11 a.m. BST. Don’t miss out – register now!.**
ON THIS DAY IN POLITICS: On this day in 2014, the Scottish people voted in a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom. The “no” side won, once and for all ending the use of referendums to decide massive constitutional questions. Just kidding.
WRITING PLAYBOOK TOMORROW MORNING: Sam Blewett.
THANKS TO: My editor Matt Honeycombe-Foster, reporter Noah Keate and the POLITICO production team for making it look nice.
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