Morgan McSweeney quits as Starmer’s chief of staff over Mandelson appointment, plunging Labour into deepest crisis of premiership
Morgan McSweeney resigned as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff on Sunday, taking responsibility for advising the appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to the United States despite Mandelson’s known links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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The departure of McSweeney — a Cork-born strategist instrumental in Labour’s 2024 landslide — comes amid newly released files detailing Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein and marks the gravest crisis of Starmer’s 18 months in power. Polls have shown Starmer’s standing with voters eroding after a series of U-turns, and critics inside Labour are openly questioning his judgment.
‘I take full responsibility’
“The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said in a statement. “When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
McSweeney added that while he did not oversee the due diligence and vetting process for the ambassadorship, it “must now be fundamentally overhauled,” and urged that the voices of “the women and girls whose lives were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein” be kept at the forefront.
Starmer called it an “honour” to work with McSweeney, crediting him with helping “turn our party around after one of its worst ever defeats” and playing “a central role” in the 2024 campaign. “It is largely thanks to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we won a landslide majority and have the chance to change the country,” Starmer said, thanking him for his service.
Opposition seizes on turmoil
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the resignation but said Starmer should “take responsibility” for his own decisions. “It’s about time,” she wrote on X, accusing the prime minister of blaming others: “Mandelson lied to me” or “Morgan advised me.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Labour was “continuing the chaos we saw under the Tories,” adding on X that his “money says Starmer won’t be far behind after Labour’s disaster in the elections this coming May.”
Inside Labour, several lawmakers had already blamed McSweeney for pushing Mandelson’s appointment and for the damage from the subsequent publication of messages between Mandelson and Epstein. Others have called for Starmer to go. One Labour politician, speaking on condition of anonymity, said McSweeney’s resignation “buys the PM time, but it’s still the end of days.”
Files release looms as Washington fallout feared
Starmer dismissed Mandelson in September over his Epstein links. The government last week agreed to release virtually all previously private communications among senior officials from the period when Mandelson was being considered for the Washington post. That release could come as early as this week, threatening further upheaval.
If the records include previously secret messages about how London planned to approach its relationship with Donald Trump, publication could complicate Starmer’s ties with the U.S. president just as Downing Street seeks to steady relations.
A pivotal strategist departs
McSweeney, 48, was born in Macroom, County Cork, and moved to London at 17. Inspired by the Good Friday Agreement, he joined Labour and started as an intern at party headquarters in 2001. He rose through campaign roles and in 2017 became director of Labour Together, a factional group that opposed Corbynism and mapped a route back to electability for the party’s center-left.
After Labour’s 2024 general election victory, McSweeney was appointed head of political strategy and widely credited as an architect of the win. He became chief of staff in October 2024 following the resignation of Sue Gray after a dispute over pay and donations.
What’s next
It was not immediately clear who would replace McSweeney. Vidhya Alakeson, who worked closely with Starmer in opposition, serves as deputy chief of staff. Whether McSweeney’s exit will quiet Labour unrest — or simply intensify pressure on Starmer as fresh disclosures loom — is now a central question for a government elected to restore stability and standards in public life.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
