Starmer can’t afford to sack McSweeney, MPs say as new year coup rumours swirl
Sir Keir Starmer could face a leadership challenge early in the new year as Labor MPs claim the prime minister can no longer sack his chief of staff because that would hasten his own departure.
In a bid to draw a line under the turmoil that has engulfed his government this week, Sir Keir insisted he had been reassured that no one in Downing Street was responsible for the briefing against health secretary Wes Streeting.
The briefing, in which Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney was accused, suggested Mr Streeting was preparing to launch a leadership coup.
But calls for redundancies continued to grow even as the prime minister tried to end the row by apologizing to Mr Streeting.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who has been accused of maneuvering to replace Sir Keir, echoed Mr Streeting’s demands that the person responsible be sacked.
Mr Miliband asked whether the prime minister should sack the person found to be responsible for the briefings. Today’s Program: “Of course he should.”
Meanwhile, another minister said: “He should be dismissed. [McSweeney] But we all know he can’t. They are mutually locked into each other for survival.
Others said Mr McSweeney was “probably irremovable” but added that the prime minister “should be very worried”.
A civil war has broken out among senior figures in Downing Street, a series of briefings against communications director Tim Allan have suggested.
Mr McSweeney was credited with choosing Sir Keir as Labor leader for reviving the party after the disastrous Jeremy Corbyn era, and he was also praised for winning the general election.
But concerns are growing about his influence in Downing Street; A minister claims Mr McSweeney has “fundamentally made changes” after Angela Rayner resigned as deputy chancellor and housing minister.
One MP said: “The question on all our minds now is whether a change of leader will improve things. We’re averaging under 20 per cent in the polls, it can’t get any worse than that.”
Another MP noted: “We only need 20 percent of MPs to nominate someone [to challenge Starmer]. “This is now possible.”
Meanwhile, a senior figure suggested a challenge could come as early as January in a bid to preserve some of the seats at risk in the May election.
They said: “A lot of people say to me, why wait? Why don’t we at least try to save thousands of councillors, some Welsh Senedd members and Scottish MPs?”
John McTernan, a former strategist in the Blair government, said: “Everyone was raising the question of leadership change before this happened but this week has forced that question. It’s probably brought everything to the fore.”
“The problem is that whether the prime minister knew it or not, the briefing had Number 10 authority. So either he has no confidence in the health minister, which means he has to go, or he has to sack the chief of staff.”
In a devastating attack, Alastair Campbell said public support for the prime minister was rapidly “weakening”, adding that the government “lacked a compelling narrative” and had “conceded too many own goals”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Campbell said: “There are bigger, worse enemies like Nigel Farage. [is] “We’re going to come and take over this country and take it to a very dark place.”
But speaking to reporters on Anglesey, Sir Keir insisted he would “absolutely deal with anyone responsible for briefing ministers” after a bitter briefing war erupted at the heart of government.
He said: “First of all, let me be clear that any briefing to ministers is absolutely unacceptable. This is not a new position for me, it is a position I have taken since I became prime minister. I have made this very clear to my team.
“I met with my team today. I was assured from No 10 that there had been no briefing against ministers, but I made it clear that I found this completely unacceptable.”
He added: “I was assured that it was not coming from Downing Street, but I was equally clear that I intend to deal with it, whether it is this case or another.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street said it has full confidence in the Prime Minister’s Tim Allan after calling for an investigation into the communications chief over allegations of conflict of interest.
These focus on his shares in a lobbying firm and reported discussions on politics with one of his advisors.
The Conservatives wanted the Cabinet Office to launch a full investigation, while the Liberal Democrats also demanded an investigation.
Labor said any claim he did anything to benefit the Strand while at No 10 was “categorically false” and that any interaction with Tom Baldwin was “within his capacity as a journalist and had nothing to do with the Strand, his business or his clients”.
A spokesman for Strand Partners said Mr Baldwin, the Prime Minister’s biographer, “is a journalist who does not engage in government relations on Strand’s behalf and this is not part of the terms of his contract with us”.
