‘Mor-gone but not forgotten’

Morgan McSweeney resigned on Sunday afternoon. By that point, his going felt like an inevitability. Exclusive polling conducted for us by Survation and released on Saturday night found that 80% of Labour members wanted him to be sacked.

McSweeney is widely credited with the strategy that delivered Labour a landslide victory at the General Election. That should not be forgotten. Labour has made many mistakes and taken many wrong turns since coming to power. But a lot of good has been done too. Historic legislation that will change lives long after this government has faded from memory has been passed. It would be wrong to forget the part that McSweeney played in ensuring that Labour were in power in order to do that.

However, it is telling that even in Starmer’s statement thanking McSweeney for his service, that it was that election victory and his work on the Labour Party that he praised – rather than the work he has done in the 19 months since the election.

There is a concept ironically called ‘the Peter Principle’ that in a hierarchy everyone tends to rise to their level of incompetence; if you are exceptional at one job you may find you do not have the skills to be exceptional – or even competent – at the job a few rungs up the ladder. Or in this case at a very different job, serving the same person who is also now doing a very different job. It may be that the very skills that McSweeney honed to laserlike focus when planning how to achieve the leap from opposition to government were simply not the same needed to stick the landing and govern the day-to-day that came after July 2024.

READ MORE: Morgan McSweeney resigns as Starmer’s chief of staff over Mandelson scandal

Our polling demonstrated a landslide against McSweeney was more ambivalent about Starmer. While 34% of members want the PM to go too, 51% do not. That’s not ideal for the leader, but it’s also worth saying that a majority are in favour of him staying.

This gap between the trust still put in Starmer and that lost by McSweeney give Keir an opportunity. Not just to change the personnel at the top, but to change the culture that has become so toxic and damaging in Downing Street’s relationships with the Party – in Parliament, and with activists.

It will not be enough for Starmer simply to lose McSweeney but change nothing more. Labour MPs – who more than anyone else hold the PM’s fate in their hands – will need to see a real and immediate difference. Feelings still run high and the much used work ‘febrile’ still very much applies. When he speaks to the PLP tonight the PM will need to move beyond his own anger at Mandelson and offer MPs answers on how he will change not just the people in his Downing Street but how it operates and works with – not against – the Parliamentary party.

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In Downing Street, Starmer has appointed two women, Vidyha Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson as acting joint chiefs of staff (they previously served as deputies to McSweeney). They will have a lot to do but changing the culture of Downing Street and how it works with stakeholders and Labour colleagues should be top of the agenda.

I suggest two areas of work that would bear immediate fruit:

First the culture of anonymous briefings against colleagues to the media must go. Actions such as these must be seen to have consequences. Those found doing it should be on a warning. Those found doing it again, on a P45. This will be a good signal, but it must go wider. The new Chiefs of Staff should now ensure that no one ever has cause to call the Downing Street operation a ‘boys club’ – a set of people who put faction before country or party.  The operation has to agree on the goals – they do not need to be ideologically identikit. Open the operation up to the same broad talent that worked on Starmer’s leadership campaign. Be open to challenge and allow that sometimes those challenging you are asking the right questions – ones that might avoid scandals such as that we are currently living through.

Secondly, much has been made of the recent backbench trips to Chequers. This is a good start. It is no more than that. One backbencher attending told me it would be the first time they would properly meet the PM.

Politics – and perhaps Labour politics in particular – has a bad habit of thinking that one big gesture/speech/moment can change everything. But we of all parties should know that change is only real when it is systemic. Downing Street has to fix relations with the PLP and they have to do it quickly – as they must know the clock is ticking. This kind of reach out should be routine, not remarkable.

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These immediate proposals together could mark the start of a new chapter and a new atmosphere of collegiate productivity that is much needed in this embattled Downing Street. It might even succeed. We should all hope so just as we desperately hope for Labour to succeed in government. But if it doesn’t work to save Starmer’s premiership, that doesn’t mean that this culture change won’t be essential for the Labour Party’s ongoing health.

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