Starmer’s right hand man has resigned – what does this mean for the future of the PM?
TThe name Morgan McSweeney may not have been on many people’s lips in the pub or at the school gate, but it’s a name those inside the Westminster bubble are obsessed with.
But now it has become the biggest scalp yet in the rapidly escalating scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson that threatens to rattle the prime minister too.
The departure of the man responsible for making Sir Keir leader of the Labor Party, the architect of its subsequent election victory and the central figure in running the government, reveals a weak prime minister in a very bad light.
Labor MPs were always aware of the power and importance of the former chief of staff in Downing Street; They considered this power to be a toxic poison at the heart of government, or a tool for future preference and promotion.
Such were the concerns of Labour’s ambitious young special advisers (spads) about the toxicity of the Downing Street operation under his management. Independent that they will not go there and work, but will instead choose distant departments.
Just last week a shovel said Independent: “You can’t catch me dead there.”
Cabinet ministers would privately complain about this, but everyone knew McSweeney had no Starmer and vice versa.
A trusted senior minister said: “Keir needs to tackle the toxicity in Downing Street or we won’t get anywhere.”
There were even occasional murmurs in the corridors of Westminster that this was McSweeney’s government, not Starmer’s, and that the prime minister was actually spearheading a project led by an unelected official in Downing Street.
Stories about his latest ministerial reshuffle last year highlighted his impact. According to sources, all three people removed from the cabinet were people McSweeney wanted to remove.
Angela Rayner may have been forced to resign over tax matters, but the Blairite wing of the party, of which McSweeney was a key member, had waged a long and concerted campaign to oust her. Who allowed Rayner’s comments on immigration to be read in a revealing and damaging way at the cabinet meeting held just before the summer? This could only happen with McSweeney’s approval.
Lucy Powell, who returned after winning the election as the party’s deputy leader, was removed as leader of the House of Commons “because she stood up to McSweeney and told him he was wrong,” according to one ally.
Ian Murray was replaced by Douglas Alexander as Scottish secretary “due to McSweeney’s obsession with Blair-era figures”. A highly talented individual, Alexander was a minister and campaign chief in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
“McSweeney was desperate to get him into cabinet and Ian was expendable,” a source said Independent.
More worryingly, one of his senior aides, Paul Ovenden, was sacked from Downing Street after emails emerged containing chilling statements about former Labor MP Diane Abbott.
But now McSweeney’s poor judgment of character has been exposed due to his ties to Mandelson.
According to reports, the 48-year-old not only pushed for Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador but also tried to prevent his removal.
But to understand the current project, you need to go back to the Jeremy Corbyn years, when McSweeney was at the forefront of trying to save the party from disappearing forever into a far-left black hole.
As director of Labor Together, he effectively organized the fight and hand-picked Starmer as the man to take over from Corbyn and turn the ship around.
Labour’s success in the general election in which McSweeney ran was testament to the viability of this project, but unfortunately the party came to power without much of a policy plan.
And it all started when McSweeney removed an obstacle to his authority: Sue Gray had been brought in as his original chief of staff before succeeding him.
As the welfare crisis escalated last year, calls for McSweeney to be sacked became very loud indeed, with scores of Labor MPs threatening to vote to reject the government’s policy. And they haven’t been quiet since then.
But the Mandelson scandal stunned them.
But therein lies the problem. If this government were a McSweeney government rather than a Starmer government, the prime minister would be struggling to survive without his chief of staff.
Without McSweeney, Starmer is greatly weakened and suggestions of a leadership coup within a few weeks become very realistic.
Sir Keir plans to go the distance by appointing two people from the current team – Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson – as chiefs of staff to replace McSweeney. He plans to continue focusing on cost-of-living issues and put himself front and center in the fight.
But with crucial by-elections due in Gorton and Denton on February 26, followed by local and devolved elections on May 7, Labor MPs may decide they want a new resident in Downing Street well before the summer.
