Who is Morgan McSweeney? Keir Starmer's right hand man who has quit
The Cork native has been described as the power behind Sir Keir Starmer, but he has now resigned.
Sir Keir Starmer is under huge pressure over his handling of the Peter Mandelson-Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
The Prime Minister admitted this week that he was warned about Lord Mandelson’s friendship with the paedophile financier before appointing him as US ambassador.
But he said that Lord Mandelson “lied” about the extent of their relationship.
The whole debacle has centred around emails showing that Lord Mandelson leaked market sensitive information to Epstein when he was in government between 2008 and 2010.
The Prime Minister’s job is now in jeopardy, especially after his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigned on Sunday afternoon because he was key to Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
Some MPs reckon that Mr McSweeney going could buy Sir Keir some time.
But who is the former Downing Street chief of staff?
Who is Morgan McSweeney?
Mr McSweeney was the most senior adviser in the UK government and is a senior aide to the Prime Minister.
He was dubbed the real power behind Sir Keir and holds more power than anyone without elected office in British politics.
Mr McSweeney is married to Hamilton and Clyde Valley MP Imogen Walker, who was elected in 2024, and has a house in rural Lanarkshire.
He is known to be on the right of the Labour Party.
What’s his background?
Mr McSweeney was born in Macroom, West Cork.
He moved to London as a 17-year-old in 1994 and became involved in the Labour Party.
He first earned a reputation as a “formidable organiser” in 2006 when he helped Labour regain control of the south London council of Lambeth from the Tories and Lib Dems.
Mr McSweeney then helped stop the rise of the British National Party in the London east end borough of Barking and Dagenham between 2008 and 2010.
After Labour lost the 2015 general election, Mr McSweeney ran Liz Kendall’s unsuccessful leadership campaign.
It was a dismal result for Ms Kendall, who came fourth with 4.5 per cent of the vote when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader.
Mr McSweeney then became director of the think tank Labour Together in 2017.
Labour Together worked on a potential replacement for Mr Corbyn and for the Labour right to take back control of the party.
When did he first get involved with Keir Starmer?
The Irishman ran Sir Keir’s leadership campaign in 2020 and became Labour chief of staff after the election.
After poor results in by-elections, in June 2021 he was moved to a “strategic role” in the Labour leader’s office but remained a key adviser.
In the September Mr McSweeney became Labour’s director of campaigns and took over the selection of candidates for the general election.
When Labour came to power in 2024, Mr McSweeny was made head of political strategy alongside Paul Ovenden.
He was involved in a power struggle with chief of staff Sue Gray, who resigned just months after the election.
Mr McSweeney was then appointed as chief of staff in October 2024.
What is his relationship with Peter Mandelson?
Mr McSweeney has been described as the protegee of key New Labour figure Lord Mandelson.
The pair were known to be personally close and Mr McSweeney had been a “keen advocate” for Lord Mandelson to become ambassador to the United States, despite concerns raised by security services during the vetting process.
The revelations since which resulted in Lord Mandelson getting sacked and losing his peerage have cast doubts on Mr McSweeney’s and Sir Keir’s political judgement.
The Prime Minister under increasing pressure from his MPs and Mr McSweeney is now gone.
Sir Keir will be hoping that he is not next.
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