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Morgan McSweeney

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Morgan McSweeney
Downing Street Chief of Staff
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 October 2024
Prime MinisterKeir Starmer
Deputy
  • Vidhya Alakeso
  • Jill Cuthbertson
Preceded bySue Gray
Head of Political Strategy
10 Downing Street
In office
5 July 2024 – 6 October 2024
Serving with Paul Ovenden
Prime MinisterKeir Starmer
Preceded byOffice established
Director of Campaigns to the Leader of the Opposition
In office
September 2022 (2022-09) – 5 July 2024
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byOffice established
Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition
In office
4 April 2020 (2020-04-04) – 20 June 2021 (2021-06-20)
LeaderKeir Starmer
Succeeded bySam White
Personal details
Born1977 (age 46–47)
Macroom, County Cork, Ireland
Political partyLabour
SpouseImogen Walker
Children1
EducationMiddlesex University

Morgan McSweeney (born 1977) is an Irish political aide who has served as Downing Street Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Keir Starmer since October 2024.[1] He was previously the campaign manager for the Labour Party and director of the think tank Labour Together.[2]

McSweeney originally gained a reputation as a Labour organiser, including leading successful campaigns to win a majority on the Lambeth London Borough Council and to defeat the far-right British National Party in Barking and Dagenham. In 2017, he became Labour Together director during the Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, where he worked to replace Corbyn and to reduce left-wing influence in the party. In 2020, he led Starmer's successful Labour leadership campaign and subsequently led Labour's successful campaign in the 2024 UK general election.

In June 2024, New Statesman ranked McSweeney first on a list of the most influential progressive figures in the UK,[3] having described him as Starmer's "most trusted aide".[4] In October 2023, The Times stated that "nobody without elected office wields as much power in British politics as McSweeney".[5]

Early life and education

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McSweeney was born in 1977 in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland.[6] Tim McSweeney, his father, was/is senior partner of an accounting firm, and his mother, Carmel McSweeney, was a bridge player. His paternal grandfather, Michael McSweeney, served in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and won a medal for his service.[6] His aunt was a councillor for Fine Gael and his first cousin, Clare Mungovan, was special adviser to the Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar as of October 2023.[7][8] As a child McSweeney played hurling and was a mascot of the Macroom GAA Gaelic football team.[7]

He migrated to London in 1994 aged 17, initially working on building sites and later attempting university, though he dropped out within 12 months.[9][7] He tried a second time at age 21, studying marketing and politics at Middlesex University.[7][9][8]

Political career

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In 1997, motivated by backing for the Good Friday Agreement, McSweeney joined the Labour Party, and in 2001 he was hired to work as an intern receptionist and in the party's attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank, where he input data into Peter Mandelson’s “Excalibur” database.[8][7] Alan Milburn dispatched McSweeney to marginal seats to campaign for Labour in the 2005 general election.[9]

He then moved on to campaign for Steve Reed for the 2006 Lambeth London Borough Council election,[8] working to take control of the council from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, gaining a reputation as a "formidable organiser," according to The Guardian.[10][7] Labour succeeded in the election, gaining the council from a previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.[9] McSweeney simultaneously ran as a council candidate in the 2006 Sutton London Borough Council election, which he lost with 149 votes.[8] He then worked as chief of staff for Reed in Lambeth Council.[10]

From 2008 until 2010,[9] he campaigned with Evans, Jon Cruddas, Margaret Hodge and Hope not Hate against the British National Party in Barking and Dagenham. He worked with the council's leadership, developing communication strategies for the 17 wards in the community including the re-establishment of a duty on residents to keep their front gardens clean,[11] also focusing on patriotism and crime as campaign points.[9] This campaign succeeded in the 2010 general election, when Labour defeated the BNP in the borough.[8] Cruddas later referred to McSweeney as "the real unsung hero of the whole thing".[9] Following Labour's national defeat in the 2010 general election, he became head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association.[9]

In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, McSweeney ran the leadership campaign of Liz Kendall, who came fourth with 4.5% of the vote.[10][8] He then spent another period in local government.[8]

Director of Labour Together

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McSweeney became director of the think tank group Labour Together in 2017, reporting to a board that included Reed, Lisa Nandy, Jon Cruddas and Trevor Chinn, and also serving as company secretary.[8] As Labour Together director, he declared his aims to be "to move the Labour party from the hard left" and to "build a sustainable winning electoral coalition."[12]

Under his leadership, Labour Together worked to plan a potential replacement of then leader Jeremy Corbyn and reforms that would prevent the left-wing of the Labour Party from regaining power.[10] Through polling Labour membership, he determined that it would be possible to peel away the soft left, younger "idealists" of Labour from Corbyn's support base, eventually picking Keir Starmer to do so.[8][10][7] As part of his strategy, he also focused on reducing the popularity of the newly founded left-wing news website The Canary among Labour members while building a close link between The Guardian and Labour Together.[12]

He composed a three-year plan for Starmer to become Prime Minister after taking control of the party, which involved first performing "immediate CPR" to reform the party's ranks (which included removing supporters of Corbyn and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard and excluding them from future leadership contests), then secondly becoming an effective opposition in parliament by directly attacking the Conservatives on their failures, and lastly winning power by outwitting the Conservatives on crime, defence and the economy.[9][7] He was then recruited to run Starmer's 2020 campaign for Labour leader, which Starmer won.[9]

During this time McSweeney also set up the Center for Countering Digital Hate, initially designed to target online antisemitism.[9]

McSweeney fundraised for Labour Together during his role as company secretary, though stopped reporting the large majority of donations the group received from December 2017 onward, eventually failing to report more than £730,000 in funds within the 30 days required by law during his tenure. The undeclared donations as well as additional incorrect information declared by McSweeney were investigated by the Electoral Commission; Labour Together received a fine of £14,250 for over 20 breaches of electoral law in September 2021,[8] which a spokesman for the Commission stated was "towards the high end of [the] scale".[13]

Labour Party offices

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Chief of Staff

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Starmer succeeded in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election on 4 April 2020 with 56.2% of the vote and immediately picked McSweeney as his chief of staff, causing him to leave Labour Together.[10][8] Following Labour's defeat in the Hartlepool by-election in May 2021, he allegedly wrote on a whiteboard in Labour headquarters, "change Labour. Change Britain."[7]

On 20 June 2021, following Labour's worst ever by-election performance in the Chesham and Amersham by-election and in anticipation of the July Batley and Spen by-election, Starmer moved McSweeney from his role as Chief of Staff to a "strategic role" in his office, though he remained as Starmer's "number one adviser".[14]

Director of Campaigns

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In September 2021 McSweeney was appointed as Labour's director of campaigns.[10] He also worked to impose a new MP selection process for the Labour Party, centralising the longlisting of candidates which largely locked out left wing candidates and those connected to Corbyn's leadership.[15] The Times has noted that "Those who question his authority inevitably find Starmer sides with McSweeney."[7]

He led preparations for the 2024 United Kingdom general election,[8] with Scotland being a priority target for his campaigning.[16] McSweeney made contact with members of the US Democratic Party and Australian Labor Party, respectively Neera Tanden and Anthony Albanese, to discuss election tactics.[17] He argued in a December 2023 shadow cabinet meeting that despite Labour's significant lead in national polls, six different elections from around the world were examples of leads reversing once campaigns began.[18][19]

Head of political strategy

[edit]

After Labour's victory in the 2024 general election on 4 July, McSweeney was appointed the head of political strategy alongside Paul Ovenden.[20]

Some media reports suggested in August that McSweeney had come into some tension with Starmer's chief of staff Sue Gray, with McSweeney being more politics-focused and Gray being governance-focused, both allegedly developing rival power centres within 10 Downing Street.[21][22] McSweeney privately rejected the idea and insisted that he worked well with Gray.[22] Later that month, it was reported that Gray had moved McSweeney's desk further from Starmer's office twice and that she had requested that he be denied access to a secure computer system. While some sources put forward that Gray suspected McSweeney's allies of accusing her through briefings of "micromanaging staff", other sources stated the two worked well together.[23]

Downing Street Chief of Staff

[edit]

Following the resignation of Sue Gray, McSweeney was appointed Downing Street Chief of Staff on 6 October 2024. Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson were appointed as his deputies.[24]

Reputation

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In September 2023, New Statesman ranked McSweeney third on a list of the most influential left-wing figures in the UK and described him as Starmer's "most trusted aide".[15] In the next edition of the list in June 2024, the magazine upgraded McSweeney to first place, naming him "the most influential person on the left today".[25] In October 2023, The Times stated that "nobody without elected office wields as much power in British politics as McSweeney",[7] and The Guardian described him as "the most influential backroom operator in the party".[26]

Personal life

[edit]

McSweeney is married to Imogen Walker, the Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley. They have a son.[7][9][27]

References

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  1. ^ Penna, Dominic (6 October 2024). "Sue Gray resigns as Starmer's chief of staff". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  2. ^ Cumming, Ed; Rayner, Gordon (6 July 2024). "The softly-spoken Irishman who turned Labour into a formidable machine". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  3. ^ "The Left Power List 2024". New Statesman. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  4. ^ "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. 17 May 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  5. ^ Maguire, Patrick (6 October 2023). "The real power behind Starmer — who would rather stay in the shadows". The Times. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  6. ^ a b Pogrund, Gabriel; O'Connell, Hugh (1 June 2024). "Morgan McSweeney, the workaholic Irishman who built Starmer's Labour". The Times. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Maguire, Patrick (6 October 2023). "The real power behind Starmer — who would rather stay in the shadows". The Times. Archived from the original on 31 May 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pogrund, Gabriel; Yorke, Harry (12 November 2023). "The secretive guru who plotted Keir Starmer's path to power with undeclared cash". The Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wearmouth, Rachel (16 November 2022). "Morgan McSweeney – Labour's power broker". New Statesman. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Adu, Aletha (27 October 2023). "Eyes on the prize: thinktank that put Keir Starmer and Labour on front foot". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  11. ^ Wildenberg, Lara Spirit (16 August 2024). "How Labour beat the far right in Barking and Dagenham". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  12. ^ a b Asthana, Anushka (14 September 2024). "'Corbyn had flown too close to the sun': how Labour insiders battled the left and plotted the party's path back to power". The Observer. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  13. ^ Penna, Dominic (12 November 2023). "Labour group once run by Starmer's right-hand man fined for failing to declare donations". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  14. ^ Stubley, Peter (19 June 2021). "Starmer moves top adviser to 'strategic role' after by-election disaster". The Independent. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  15. ^ a b "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. 17 May 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  16. ^ Cowley, Jason (24 September 2023). "Scottish showdown is a seminal moment for Keir Starmer". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  17. ^ Parker, George; Pickard, Jim; Politi, James; Fedor, Lauren (27 June 2023). "Labour covertly met US Democrats during Sunak's Washington visit". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  18. ^ Stacey, Kiran (3 January 2024). "Labour's poll lead could still collapse, shadow ministers warned". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  19. ^ Courea, Eleni (7 December 2023). "Rishi Sunak's looming leadership crisis". Politico. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  20. ^ Crerar, Pippa; Elgot, Jessica (8 July 2024). "Who are the key people inside Labour's leadership team?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  21. ^ Boycott-Owen, Mason (16 August 2024). "Britain's most powerful woman goes to war". Politico. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  22. ^ a b Parker, George; Fisher, Lucy; Pickard, Jim (14 August 2024). "Downing Street fights charge Sue Gray is creating 'bottleneck'". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  23. ^ Adu, Aletha; Mason, Rowena; Courea, Eleni (16 August 2024). "'Look out for fireworks': power struggle rumours between No 10 big beasts persist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  24. ^ "Politics latest: Sue Gray resigns as Downing Street chief of staff". Sky News. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  25. ^ "The Left Power List 2024". New Statesman. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  26. ^ Mason, Rowena; Crerar, Pippa (7 October 2023). "Who's who in Keir Starmer's reshaped top team?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  27. ^ Massie, John Boothman, Alex (23 July 2024). "Scottish Labour MPs take first steps on ministerial ladder". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 23 July 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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