Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson: Who are Starmer’s new joint chiefs of staff?
Morgan McSweeney was forced to resign as Downing Street chief of staff as scandal escalated over Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US despite his links to convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir Starmer, who is fighting to save his premiership, has vowed that the agenda he and Mr McSweeney are working on will remain unchanged and will maintain a “relentless” focus on the cost of living.
In light of this, Sir Keir sought an internal replacement rather than bringing in new thinking from outside.
Shortly after the resignation was announced, staff were informed that Mr McSweeney had approached two of his deputies, Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson, to be appointed as the new chiefs of staff of the embattled Downing Street operation.
Who are the two women tasked with correcting the course of Sir Keir’s rule?
Vidhya Alakeson
Vidhya Alakeson, 49, was Keir Starmer’s political director when he was opposition leader and has long been one of his most trusted aides.
He previously worked at the influential Solution Foundation think tank, which played a key role in shaping Labour’s sometimes faltering economic policy.
He also spent time serving as CEO of Power of Change. The organization had the National Lottery Community Fund-backed trust with the aim of “strengthening communities through community work”, which it believes has the power to “tackle some of society’s biggest challenges at a local level”, including climate change, digital transformation and social inequalities.
He has degrees from Oxford University and the LSE and was awarded an OBE in 2021.
Miss Alakeson was also privately educated at Wimbledon Girls’ High School.
Jill Cuthbertson
Jill Cuthbertson played a key role as event manager for Britain Stronger in Europe in the unsuccessful referendum campaign to keep Britain in the EU in 2016.
He is a long-serving aide to Sir Keir and was previously a director of his private office until the 2024 election, when he was given the job as director of government relations.
He held the post briefly before being promoted to joint deputy chief of staff after Sue Gray was removed as chief of staff and replaced by Mr. McSweeney.
Ms Cuthbertson was previously private secretary to Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown, and before that to Cherie Blair.
A veteran member of the Labor government, he was Mr Brown’s political office manager when he was prime minister.
Ms Cuthbertson married Mo Hussein, a former special adviser to Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd, in 2019. They met while working on the Remain campaign during the referendum.
