‘A pescatarian forced to eat dog meat’: the Starmer-McSweeney alliance ends

Keir Starmer was loyal to Morgan McSweeney to the end, saying it had been “an honour” to work with him and praising his “dedication” and “leadership” for Labour’s landslide election victory. “Our party and I owe him a debt of gratitude,” he wrote in response to his chief of staff’s resignation.

McSweeney was not always so loyal to Starmer. He once described the prime minister as an “HR manager not a leader”. His allies liked to use a metaphor about the driverless Docklands Light Railway saying: “Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR.” At a Labour conference party to celebrate the 2024 election result, McSweeney made a long speech about the brilliant political strategy he had pursued, without once mentioning the leader.

So this was a weirdly unbalanced partnership and the misjudgements went far beyond the decision to recommend Peter Mandelson for the job of UK ambassador to Washington. McSweeney saw Starmer as his creation – the person he had picked and shaped, helped win the Labour leadership and then take the country. The prime minister subcontracted to his chief of staff what he regarded as the “dirty” business of politics which meant his own values were too often ignored.

Starmer is a liberal human rights lawyer, who is driven by a desire to give opportunity to disadvantaged young people. McSweeney was convinced that the key to retaining power at the next election was to appeal to Reform voters and potential Reform voters in the so-called “red wall” of seats that switched from Labour to the Tories after Brexit and then flipped back again. This meant talking tough on immigration and playing down issues like education that he thought were not electorally “salient” or important to his focus groups.

The prime minister became, one Labour source said, “a pescatarian forced to eat dog meat”. This led to bizarre moments such as Starmer denouncing the words that came out of his own mouth in the “island of strangers” speech and a strategic incoherence of Labour Party social media posts portraying Reform as “basically the same” as the Tories even as Starmer described Nigel Farage’s party as an existential threat to democracy that is completely different to anything that has gone before. “It’s one reason why Keir looks like a shape-shifter to many voters – he’s not been allowed to show what his values are,” one ally said.

It was striking on the prime minister’s recent trip to China how differently Starmer behaved on the world stage. The business leaders and cultural figures who accompanied him were impressed by his confidence, credibility and even charm. Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser who accompanied him on that visit, was always respectful and supportive of the prime minister. He saw his role as to give him the tools to help him secure the best possible outcome for the country. When he returned to the UK, Starmer had an adviser beside him who was privately dismissive of him and focussed mainly on Labour’s electoral prospects rather than the national interest.

It has been widely accepted in Whitehall for months now that McSweeney “is not a chief of staff” – he had little interest in policy formulation or delivery, and struggled to build a team in Downing Street. There was, one insider said, “an absolutely poisonous atmosphere in Number 10” under his leadership. Female MPs described a “boys’ club” around the prime minister. In fact much of the day to day work was being carried out by McSweeney’s deputy Vidhya Alakeson. According to one Labour source: “She’s basically been doing the job with one hand tied behind her back because Morgan kept swinging in to throw a wrecking ball into her plans.”

This could be the chance for a “reset” if Starmer dares to take it, an opportunity for the prime minister to define his leadership on his own terms. He is also being urged by senior Labour figures to replace Chris Wormold, the cabinet secretary to improve the performance of the government.

It is unlikely to be enough. The Labour leader may have bought a little time by sacrificing McSweeney but he has also highlighted his vulnerability. Last week one former Cabinet minister told me: “If Morgan is in trouble then Keir is in trouble. Morgan created Keir and Keir is totally dependent on him, if he gets rid of Morgan it’s game over.”

Already MPs are asking why, if the chief of staff has resigned over his advice to appoint Mandelson, the prime minister is not quitting for actually taking the decision. “Morgan had to go,” one Labour peer said. “He’s been a disaster, everyone thinks he’s a genius but he’s been a third rate Mandelson, not nearly as clever as people think. He should have gone ages ago. But it’s not going to be enough to save Keir.”

Photograph by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street