On yesterday’s media round, Pat McFadden – widely regarded as the most sober and politically experienced member of the cabinet – was asked if the time had come for Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney to resign. ‘I don’t think it would make any difference at all,’ he said.
Five hours later, following a morning of strenuous denials from Downing Street, McSweeney was gone.
And unfortunately for the Prime Minister, and those of his allies ludicrously trying to spin that this draws a line under the Mandelson crisis, McFadden was right. It won’t make any difference to Sir Keir’s fate at all.
Firstly, the Prime Minister’s final human shield has gone. No one is left to absorb the impact of this political scandal now but Starmer himself.
The police investigation. The court case that may well follow. The imminent release of the Cabinet Office due diligence file on Mandelson, which will show in black and white that Starmer was explicitly warned he’d retained a close relationship with Jeffery Epstein after his first conviction for paedophilia.
The additional messages from a raft of senior government figures to Mandelson, all of which will show the extent to which he was pulling the strings of the Starmer administration. The continued drip of the US Department of Justice’s Epstein files.
Sir Keir has jettisoned the final piece of ballast from the balloon. Nothing can now prevent his own fall to earth.
McSweeney’s resignation also blows a gaping hole in Sir Keir’s increasingly incomprehensible defence for appointing Mandelson in the first place.
Morgan McSweeney’s resignation blows a gaping hole in Sir Keir’s increasingly incomprehensible defence for appointing Mandelson in the first place. Pictured: McSweeney and Sir Keir Starmer
On Thursday he claimed he ‘had no reason to disbelieve’ Mandelson’s assertion he ‘barely knew’ Epstein. By resigning, McSweeney has conceded there were very concrete reasons for disbelieving him.
The first paragraph of his resignation letter baldly states: ‘The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong.’
So if McSweeney’s role in that appointment was a resigning matter, it’s hard to see how Starmer – the man who ultimately took the decision – can continue to evade his own role in the saga.
And even if he wants to, it’s not entire clear how much longer his colleagues will grant him the luxury.
The harsh reality is McSweeney has more friends inside government than the Prime Minister. And yesterday they were spitting blood at his downfall.
‘There are a lot of us who would run through a wall for him. The people who have been gunning for him had better watch what they wished for,’ one warned.
Another observed: ‘If we believe these briefings that Keir has been thinking about a new chief of staff for some time, then he’s been planning on creating a sacrificial lamb, while at the same time claiming to take responsibility.’
Starmer simply does not have sufficient allies to defend himself from the furious tide of anger engulfing him from all sides of his party. Indeed, with McSweeney gone it’s unclear precisely what the point of the Prime Minister actually is.
Ask any Labour Minister or MP and they will concede the same thing. Starmerism was essentially a McSweeney construct. As one of McSweeney’s friends notoriously stated, ‘Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR.’
The Prime Minister knows that ultimately the responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment rests with himself. Pictured: The Prime Minister and Mandelson last year
Even before yesterday’s resignation, a consensus had begun to form within the Cabinet and the parliamentary party that Starmer could no longer carry on in Downing Street.
As one Minister told me, ‘the situation’s no longer retrievable’. But there was also a sense that with Andy Burnham outside of parliament, Angela Rayner still awaiting the outcome of the HMRC investigation into her tax affairs and Wes Streeting tainted by his own friendship with Mandelson, an immediate leadership contest was suboptimal.
As a result, discussions over the weekend began to centre around the appointment of a caretaker leader. ‘It would be someone with some experience, and a steady pair of hands. But who wouldn’t want to be considered for the job long term,’ I was told.
The names of Hillary Benn, Yvette Cooper and John Healey are being discussed.
McSweeney’s exit has intensified those discussions. Even previously loyal ministers are now coming to the conclusion the crisis needs to end swiftly. ‘It’s bad,’ one told me, ‘this can’t go on.’
But those wondering what McSweeney’s act of self-sacrifice means for the Prime Minister should primarily focus on the words his former chief of staff penned in his letter of departure.
‘When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice. In public life responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.’
Last week, I wrote, admittedly to some ridicule, that for all his faults, Keir Starmer is a decent man.
I still think it, and I believe McSweeney’s words will have resonated.
The Prime Minister knows that ultimately the responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment rests with himself. He is well aware of the premium he placed on restoring the public’s tarnished faith in their public servants when he entered office. And he recognises the truth in McSweeney’s words about responsibility.
It is inconceivable Keir Starmer will seek to drag this sordid, squalid saga out much longer. Or that he will be happy with the spectacle of him throwing his longest serving and most loyal aide under the bus to save his own skin.
McSweeney’s resignation is a symbolically momentous political moment. But Pat McFadden was right. In the end, it changes nothing.
The Prime Minister‘s fate was sealed last Wednesday in the House of Commons, when he finally admitted to Kemi Badenoch he had been told of Peter Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with the world’s most notorious child abuser. But chose to appoint him as his ambassador to Washington regardless.
Yesterday, Morgan McSweeney walked away from Downing Street. Keir Starmer will soon follow him.
