Analysis
For some,
McSweeney resignation removes obstacle to eventual downfall of Starmer
Kiran
Stacey
Policy
editor
Those
pushing to oust the prime minister are unlikely to be deterred by his
right-hand man’s departure
Sun 8 Feb
2026 20.06 GMT
For some
Labour MPs, the sight of Keir Starmer accepting the resignation of his
long-term consigliere, Morgan McSweeney, encapsulated everything they think is
going wrong with the prime minister’s leadership.
After
days of mounting criticism over McSweeney’s role in advocating for the
appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador, the prime minister’s
chief of staff left Downing Street on Sunday.
But while
his departure was welcomed by some of the prime minister’s critics, others felt
it displayed the kind of political passivity which they say has characterised
Starmer’s time in office.
“The idea
of Morgan being allowed to resign makes the PM look even weaker,” one MP said.
“He should have sacked him – now he risks going down with Morgan.”
McSweeney
enjoyed a level of access and power in Downing Street unseen since the days of
Dominic Cummings under Boris Johnson.
Some
believe it was McSweeney who, as head of the thinktank Labour Together, picked
Starmer out as the leader for his centrist movement, rather the other way
round.
McSweeney’s
influence was so all-encompassing that one Labour source was quoted in a recent
book as saying Starmer thought he was driving the train when actually he had
been placed at the front of the driverless Docklands Light Railway.
To his
supporters, McSweeney was the political genius who oversaw the overthrow of the
hard left, the rise of Starmer as leader, and eventually, the historic
landslide election victory of 2024.
They
argue his resignation shows his determination to protect the prime minister
despite the fact that it was Starmer’s ultimate decision to appoint Mandelson.
“There
were plenty of people pushing Mandelson’s appointment,” one said. “What a
tragedy that only the person providing advice has the guts to front it up.”
Another
added: “We all owe Morgan an immense debt of gratitude. He single-handedly
dragged us back to electability and propelled us into government. We would
still be facing irrelevance or even extinction without him.”
Critics,
however – many of them Labour MPs – say McSweeney ran a male-dominated cabal at
the heart of Downing Street that ignored the opinions of elected members and
prioritised battling the left over governing.
They say
McSweeney’s determination to champion the credentials of his former mentor
Mandelson shows that he valued favouring his friends and political fellow
travellers over serving the prime minister’s best interests.
They also
see the recent revelation that Labour Together – the thinktank McSweeney once
led – once commissioned an investigation into journalists reporting on its
funding as further evidence of a culture of unethical behaviour.
“It is
very consistent with the cowboy behaviour of Morgan,” said one Labour MP,
referring to the Labour Together investigation, which McSweeney did not
commission but has not denied knowing about. “There is a pattern of pretty
indefensible behaviour.”
Clive
Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, said: “Morgan McSweeney’s resignation
should not be treated as a cleansing moment. He was not an aberration. He was
the tip of an iceberg.
“What he
represents is a political culture that has dominated Labour for a generation. A
culture forged under Blair and Mandelson that taught the party to be relaxed
about extreme wealth, comfortable in the orbit of billionaires, lobbyists and
corporate power, and increasingly detached from the lives of the people it was
created to represent.”
McSweeney’s
departure should relieve pressure on Starmer in the short term. His sacking was
one of the main demands of the Tribune group of MPs from the soft left.
But some
believe that it also removes an important obstacle to the eventual downfall of
Starmer himself. Without his right-hand man around, the prime minister will
have to accept a greater share of the blame should Labour lose the Gorton and
Denton byelection and face heavy losses at the subsequent local elections.
“Keir has
nobody left to blame, he has lost his firewall,” said one MP. “But then, maybe
McSweeney’s departure also removes the need for a firewall.”
Luke
Sullivan, Starmer’s former head of political strategy, said: “This is a big
moment, but I don’t know how it helps other than buying Starmer some time.
“Morgan
is a lightning rod – some people think he’s a genius, others that he’s to blame
for everything. I don’t think any individual can be under pressure as much as
this if they’re not an elected politician.”
One thing
is certain: with leadership speculation already at fever pitch, those pushing
to oust the prime minister are unlikely to be deterred.
“Like a
wounded animal, this government will drag itself away as it’s hacked at and
pecked at till it expires, probably after the May locals,” said one leftwing
Labour backbencher. “By then Starmer can resign on the grounds of those losses
and not the reputational disaster of Epstein and Mandelson.
“It won’t
matter though. Starmer will go down as the worst PM in Labour history and one
that may have finally broken it. He’s a coward who refuses to take
responsibility for his own actions. He is a moral gravity-well from which
neither decency, honesty or integrity can escape. A genuine disaster for this
country and the Labour movement.”
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