Sir Keir Starmer is fighting to save his prime ministership following the dramatic resignation of his most trusted aide Morgan McSweeney on Sunday, as Labor MPs and officials warned his job is still at grave risk.
McSweeney’s resignation statement, in which the Downing Street chief of staff took responsibility for the decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, has sparked calls for similar blame to be placed on Starmer.
Starmer will try to regain the initiative on Monday, with aides saying he has “instructed officials to move at pace to deliver change”. But his closest helpers will no longer be with him in implementing it.
A person close to the Prime Minister said McSweeney’s departure left him “very exposed”, adding: “Morgan is effectively saying he advised Keir to make a bad decision, which he did.”
In a sign of Starmer’s precarious position, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, who was sent to defend him on Sunday, began one of his answers in a BBC interview with the words: “If the Prime Minister remains.”
McSweeney’s departure followed 48 hours of frantic discussions in Number 10, with questions over whether the Chief of Staff should step down or wait until the Gorton and Denton by-election on 26 February, which Labor might lose.
People close to Starmer said they were worried that Mandelson’s protégé McSweeney would face further damage in the coming days following the release of documents related to his tenure as the US envoy last year.
In a sign of the growing bad blood at the heart of the government, an aide to McSweeney said: “There would be no Labor government without Morgan. Him being hung out to dry like this has left yet another bad taste in the mouths of those who worked for him.”
McSweeney’s departure will please many Labor MPs who saw him as leading a factional fight inside the government: he comes from the right of the ruling party. But this left Starmer without an ally who had been at the center of his operation for six years.
A person close to Number 10 said, “He amputated a limb with gangrene, but Morgan was his right hand man.”
Vidya Alakesan and Jill Cuthbertson, deputy chiefs of staff under McSweeney, were named acting chiefs of staff on Sunday. Selecting a permanent top aide to carry out the government’s sclerotic program is now an urgent priority for Starmer.
One minister said: “Morgan makes decisions and makes things happen.” The normally loyal Labor MP said McSweeney’s resignation was probably “the endgame for Starmer”.
A Labor frontbencher said Downing Street would make a “four-day trip for recess” in the hope MPs will calm down during the half-term break from Westminster starting on Thursday.
Despite McSweeney’s departure, some colleagues are still asking who else was involved in the ill-fated decision to give Mandelson the big job in Washington.
The coworker was fired last September after emails released by the US government showed she offered support to Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, shortly before the financier pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting minors for prostitution.
A Labor official said: “Morgan did not make the appointment, so while he has made a respectable decision on accountability, he should not take responsibility.”
Questions are being asked by Labor MPs about the national security adviser and another New Labor stalwart, Jonathan Powell, and whether he could have blocked the appointment. Powell’s aides have insisted that he objected to Mandelson’s selection.
Starmer’s deputy and former Foreign Secretary David Lammy has sought to distance himself from the scandal; His friends told the Sunday Telegraph that he was not in favor of the appointment.
This contrasts with a September 2024 FT report, which described how Lammy had thrown his support behind the former cabinet secretary and was “personally in favor of Mandelson”. Although Lammy’s spokesperson did not comment at the time, his team never disputed the article.
A series of files released last month by the US government revealed that convicted pedophile Epstein sent $75,000 to Mandelson when he was a backbench MP in 2003 and 2004.
Mandelson is also being investigated by the Metropolitan Police – and has left the House of Lords – after documents also revealed he sent market-sensitive government information to Epstein when he was business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister under Gordon Brown.
The uproar is likely to intensify this week when Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee is expected to release thousands of documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment and his communications with serving ministers and officials.
A potential sticking point is the Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester this month, in which Labor is expected to perform worse in the constituency than it previously held.
Veteran Labor MP Graham Stringer said on Sunday: “After the local elections (on May 7) – and the signs are that we will lose badly – ​​we have to look at how we improve things, and I think that means a new leader.”
Several MPs have reported public anger among voters over the Mandelson scandal. “There is real concern about voter hostility in the streets,” said one left-wing Labor MP.
He said that the majority of Labor MPs wanted McSweeney to be sacked, while only a “significant minority” was committed to ousting Starmer. “Although we think Starmer cannot survive much without McSweeney,” the MP said.
Dozens of lawmakers are eyeing a rival to challenge him for the leadership, even though they have so far failed to coalesce around a clear strategy to oust Starmer and serious questions remain about the viability of potential candidates.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting himself had a close relationship with Mandelson and is widely considered to be equally tainted by the scandal.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, the darling of the Labor left who led calls in the House of Commons for the release of the Mandelson files, has yet to resolve her tax affairs following her own scandal relating to unpaid stamp duty on home purchases.
Several other names have also been circulating, including Defense Secretary John Healey and leftist insurgent Al Carnes.
Carnes was considered a future Chief of the Defense Staff if he had remained in the Army and has won support thanks to an impressive back-story untainted by internal Labor politics.
A senior Labor official said that “the mood feels exactly the same as when Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were at the end of their premierships”.
This week, he added, is “very unpredictable”. “If a cabinet minister resigns, things could get worse for Starmer.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher and David Sheppard
