Figures within Labour have unanimously said McSweeney was right to step down, but some are now calling for Keir Starmer to follow his lead
Last week was dominated by the controversy around Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as the British ambassador to the United States, despite him knowing about Mandelson’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who was a friend and protégé of Mandelson and reportedly pushed for his appointment as US ambassador, resigned yesterday.
In his resignation statement, McSweeney said he had advised the prime minister to appoint Mandelson and that he takes “full responsibility for that advice”.
He said: “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.”
Reaction within Labour has been mixed: most figures have welcomed McSweeney’s departure, others have emphasised his role in helping secure a Labour government, and some are now calling for Starmer himself to step down.
Baroness Jacqui Smith, Minister for Skills, said that McSweeney had “played an important role with Keir in changing and recovering the Labour Party to a position where it could win the general election in 2024”.
Smith said that she and others were “grateful” to McSweeney for changing the party after Labour’s “disastrous” general election in 2019. However, she added that Starmer won the election, and will continue to lead the country towards change.
Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, wrote on X that Sweeney’s resignation was “in the best interests of the Government”.
He said that while McSweeney had been “lauded for masterminding the GE2024 victory [he] has also been central to the political misjudgements and errors made since winning that GE”.
Byrne said that McSweeney “has overseen the erosion of internal democracy and the normalisation of a deeply damaging factionalism”. He said that a change in political direction must now come from the very top, and has called on Starmer to “reflect honestly on his own position and ask whether, for the good of the country and the Labour Party, he should follow McSweeney’s lead”.
Neal Lawson, Director of campaign group Compass said that “in time” a new prime minister will be needed.
Lawson said: “Morgan McSweeney’s resignation is simply one person jumping overboard on a sinking ship.
“In time, a new captain will be needed to steer the Party – and the country – in a different direction.”
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “The Labour government is being held back by an elitist faction epitomised by Morgan McSweeney whose resignation is long overdue.
“However, the vestiges of New Labour are poisoning the well of the entire movement, opening the door to electoral defeat by alienating millions of working class voters in Labour heartlands.
“New Labour created a toxic political culture where the Labour leadership turned on trade unionists, and abandoned workers in favour of a corrupt wealthy elite, epitomised by Mandelson lobbying for bankers bonuses during the crash as ordinary people lost their homes and jobs.
“Mandelson’s association with a notorious paedophile and Starmer’s decision to hire him as US ambassador could be fatal for this government unless the Labour Party changes its leadership and starts organising society in the interests of working people, rather than doffing the cap to the money markets, spivs and speculators.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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