The most powerful person that you’ve never heard of resigned from his post as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff on 8 February. Veteran political journalists Andrew Marr and Peter Oborne have called Morgan McSweeney “the most powerful person in Labour history” and “the most powerful individual in Britain”, respectively, and last week he resigned as part of the ongoing Peter Mandelson scandal. McSweeney took responsibility for recommending Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US in 2025 despite knowing of his friendship with convicted paedophile and billionaire financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
For a moment, it even looked as though the Peter Mandelson scandal might topple Keir Starmer entirely. The dust hasn’t completely settled: as recently as 12 February, Chris Wormald was pushed out of his role as cabinet secretary, showing that the government reshuffle following the scandal is still not over. However, I think Starmer will struggle on at least until the next scandal — there has only been one call for his resignation from a senior Labour politician: head of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, and following this call, cabinet members have rallied around Starmer.
Nevertheless, what is uncertain is what a Keir Starmer government will look like without Morgan McSweeney. It’s hard to overstate the importance of McSweeney in Starmer’s government. It is alleged that it was McSweeney who approached Starmer with the suggestion of his taking on leadership of the party, that he is the mastermind behind Starmer’s rise to power (including the coup that ousted Corbyn), and that he continued to mastermind the government after the general election.
That being said, though he was undoubtedly powerful, I do not think McSweeney was any good at his job. The main role as a chief of staff is to act as a strategic advisor to your boss. In this role, McSweeney has managed to take one of the biggest political mandates in British history and turn the Labour government into the worst-rated government in history.In his resignation statement, he said,“I remain fully supportive of the prime minister. He is working every day to rebuild trust, restore standards and serve the country.” This shows just how poorly McSweeney’s political project has gone, that a prime minister elected less than two years ago in one of the biggest landslide victories ever is already having to work to rebuild trust. Therefore, I believe that McSweeney’s resignation can’t possibly be a bad thing for Keir Starmer. What remains to be seen is, now that the evil advisor has been thrown out of the palace court, what will the king do? Will Starmer finally grow some backbone and, with his new independence, set out any sort of political vision? Or will he find another set of advisors to take McSweeney’s place?
“10 Downing Street, SW1” by Leonard Bentley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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What’s next for Keir Starmer’s government after Morgan McSweeney’s resignation?
The most powerful person that you’ve never heard of resigned from his post as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff on 8 February. Veteran political journalists Andrew Marr and Peter Oborne have called Morgan McSweeney “the most powerful person in Labour history” and “the most powerful individual in Britain”, respectively, and last week he resigned as part of the ongoing Peter Mandelson scandal. McSweeney took responsibility for recommending Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US in 2025 despite knowing of his friendship with convicted paedophile and billionaire financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
For a moment, it even looked as though the Peter Mandelson scandal might topple Keir Starmer entirely. The dust hasn’t completely settled: as recently as 12 February, Chris Wormald was pushed out of his role as cabinet secretary, showing that the government reshuffle following the scandal is still not over. However, I think Starmer will struggle on at least until the next scandal — there has only been one call for his resignation from a senior Labour politician: head of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, and following this call, cabinet members have rallied around Starmer.
Nevertheless, what is uncertain is what a Keir Starmer government will look like without Morgan McSweeney. It’s hard to overstate the importance of McSweeney in Starmer’s government. It is alleged that it was McSweeney who approached Starmer with the suggestion of his taking on leadership of the party, that he is the mastermind behind Starmer’s rise to power (including the coup that ousted Corbyn), and that he continued to mastermind the government after the general election.
That being said, though he was undoubtedly powerful, I do not think McSweeney was any good at his job. The main role as a chief of staff is to act as a strategic advisor to your boss. In this role, McSweeney has managed to take one of the biggest political mandates in British history and turn the Labour government into the worst-rated government in history.In his resignation statement, he said,“I remain fully supportive of the prime minister. He is working every day to rebuild trust, restore standards and serve the country.” This shows just how poorly McSweeney’s political project has gone, that a prime minister elected less than two years ago in one of the biggest landslide victories ever is already having to work to rebuild trust. Therefore, I believe that McSweeney’s resignation can’t possibly be a bad thing for Keir Starmer. What remains to be seen is, now that the evil advisor has been thrown out of the palace court, what will the king do? Will Starmer finally grow some backbone and, with his new independence, set out any sort of political vision? Or will he find another set of advisors to take McSweeney’s place?
“10 Downing Street, SW1” by Leonard Bentley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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