Labour leadership latest: Starmer must find and ‘get rid’ of aide behind Streeting coup briefings, Miliband warns

Morgan McSweeney is Sir Keir Starmer’s Downing Street Chief of Staff. It has been at the center of the leadership debate as fingers are pointed for the consequences of the apparent ploy to warn off potential leadership candidates.

Sir Keir was forced to condemn the “completely unacceptable” attacks on Cabinet ministers in a speech to the House of Commons on Wednesday: “Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are absolutely focused on serving the country.”

Mr McSweeney, Sir Keir’s top aide since October last year, was Labour’s campaign manager and director of the think tank Labor Together.

Not a single job will be created, the asylum hotel closed or the national debt wiped out by ousting Keir Starmer; It’s time for Labor to act like adults if they want to stop Nigel Farage’s advance to No 10.

Apart from the GDP and leadership debate, Ed Miliband said he made “no apologies” for choosing Rolls-Royce to build Britain’s first “small modular reactor” nuclear power plant, following criticism from the US ambassador.

The Energy Secretary told Times Radio: “It’s true he didn’t think it was that great.

“The reason he doesn’t think it’s that great is because he wants a US company to be in this facility.

“Because he thinks this is the most important site… I completely understand that, it’s completely legitimate for him to file a lawsuit on behalf of a US company.

“We chose Rolls-Royce, a British company, for this site and I make no apologies for that.

“Our duty is to protect national interests.

“There are many issues on which we cooperate with our US colleagues.”

He said the other site being considered, Oldbury in Gloucestershire, “could accommodate various other US companies that are really interested in building new nuclear power in this country.”

Labour’s senior figures are still furious over the events of the last 36 hours and are demanding that Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney: Kate Devlin, The Independent’s Whitehall Editor, reports.

A Labor colleague told the Independent Keir had been “derailed” by some people around him.

“It was a mistake to sack Sue Gray, who was engineered by McSweeney. Some say McSweeney is too powerful to be sacked – but that would suggest Starmer now has full power,” he added.

The former chairman of NatWest Bank has warned that Rachel Reeves is doing everything she can to prevent economic growth.

Economist Sir Howard Davies said on Radio 4’s Today Programme that the criticism of the chancellor came less than a fortnight before a major budget that many believe could make or break the government.

While the Chancellor took office and claimed that his number one task was economic growth, the economy stagnated.

Sir Howard blamed the policies he introduced, including increased national insurance contributions for employers and new employment rights.

He said: “I would say the behavior of the government in recent months is such that if they were trying to slow down the economy, I can’t think of anything else I could do, because first of all you show that you have problems at the top of government, then you have a series of eye-catching leaks suggesting that you’re going to tax property, you’re going to tax wealth, you’re going to tax gambling, you’re going to tax banks. Now you’re even going to tax bikes for God’s sake.”

“All of this creates a sort of cumulative weight and uncertainty. You’ve also got legislation that makes it more expensive to hire people, and you’re running a public spending policy where public sector wages are rising by 6.6 per cent a year and private sector wages by 4.2 per cent, and that prevents the Bank of England from cutting interest rates, which would work. So there’s a whole host of things that are not appropriate.”

In a devastating attack, Alastair Campbell said public support for the prime minister was rapidly “depleting” and added that the government “lacked a coherent narrative” and had scored “too many own goals”.

Mr Campbell’s intervention followed reports that the prime minister had apologized to health secretary Wes Streeting for the briefing operation against him in Downing Street on Tuesday evening.

Mr Campbell said the prime minister needed to regain control as he faced demands to sack his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, amid allegations from sources that Mr Streeting was preparing to launch a leadership coup.

Alastair Campbell, Number 10’s former communications director, said Downing Street needed to “check in” as Sir Keir Starmer faces a leadership row following briefings against Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Campbell said he believed Labour’s strategy was “not going very well”.

He said: “The worst thing about recent days is that a relatively new government looks like the last party.

“There are bigger, worse enemies like Nigel Farage.”

“Get a hold of yourself,” he added.