Morgan McSweeney resigns and says he takes ‘full accountability’ for advising Starmer to nominate Mandelson – UK politics stay | Politics
Try our newest merchandise
![[Netflix Certified & Auto Focus] Smart 4K Projector, VGKE 900 ANSI Full HD 1080p WiFi 6 Bluetooth Projector with Dolby Audio, Fully Sealed Dust-Proof/Low Noise/Outdoor/Home/Bedroom](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71yY+2ryOZL._AC_SL1500_.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1)
![[Netflix Official & Auto Focus/Keystone] Smart Projector 4K Support, VOPLLS 25000L Native 1080P WiFi 6 Bluetooth Outdoor Projector, 50% Zoom Home Theater Movie Projectors for Bedroom/iOS/Android/PPT](https://i2.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Emwd78tlL._AC_SL1500_.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1)
McSweeney says he takes ‘full accountability’ for advising Starmer to nominate Mandelson
We will now deliver you Morgan McSweeney’s resignation letter in full:
After cautious reflection, I’ve determined to resign from the federal government.
The choice to nominate Peter Mandelson was mistaken. He has broken our get together, our nation and belief in politics itself.
When requested, I suggested the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full accountability for that recommendation. In public life accountability have to be owned when it issues most, not simply when it’s most handy. Within the circumstances, the one honourable course is to step apart.
This has not been a simple choice. A lot has been written and mentioned about me through the years however my motivations have at all times been easy: I’ve labored day-after-day to elect and help a authorities that places the lives of odd folks first and leads us to a greater future for our nice nation. Solely a Labour authorities will do this. I go away with delight in all we have now achieved combined with remorse on the circumstances of my departure. However I’ve at all times believed there are moments when it’s essential to settle for your accountability and step apart for the larger trigger.
As I go away I’ve two additional reflections: Firstly, and most significantly, we should keep in mind the ladies and women whose lives have been ruined by Jeffrey Epstein and whose voices went unheard for a lot too lengthy.
Secondly, whereas I didn’t oversee the due diligence and vetting course of, I consider that course of should now be basically overhauled. This can’t merely be a gesture however a safeguard for the long run.
I stay absolutely supportive of the prime minister. He’s working day-after-day to rebuild belief, restore requirements and serve the nation. I’ll proceed to again that mission in no matter method I can. It has been the honour of my life to serve.
Key occasions
Starmer appoints new performing chiefs of workers
Pippa Crerar
An e-mail has simply gone spherical No 10 workers confirming that the prime minister has requested Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson to be performing chiefs of workers, with quick impact.
Each Alakeson and Cuthbertson have served as deputy chiefs of workers since 2024.
Pippa Crerar
Downing Avenue has instructed that Keir Starmer and his chief of workers determined collectively that it was the fitting second for McSweeney to maneuver on, indicating that in the end the prime minister made the decision.
Starmer is anticipated to offer an replace as early as Monday on how the federal government is addressing the problems highlighted by the Mandelson scandal. He instructed officers to start work on this final week, and to ship at tempo.
It was unclear whether or not this replace can be an Commons assertion to MPs, a speech or a press convention.
Authorities insiders mentioned that Starmer’s coverage focus would stay on tackling the price of dwelling and would follow the present financial technique to ship it.
Pippa Crerar
Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, has mentioned Morgan McSweeney’s resignation shouldn’t be handled as a “cleaning second”.
Lewis defined that McSweeney “was not an aberration”, however “the tip of an iceberg”.
He continued:
What he represents is a political tradition that has dominated Labour for a technology.
A tradition solid below Blair and Mandelson that taught the get together to be relaxed about excessive wealth, comfy within the orbit of billionaires, lobbyists and company energy, and more and more indifferent from the lives of the folks it was created to signify. The Mandelson scandal issues as a result of it exposes that tradition in its rawest type. Proximity to wealth and energy was not a by-product. It was the purpose.
Lewis claimed that except Labour confronts the tradition that “rewarded closeness to wealth, blurred moral traces and handled democratic accountability as an inconvenience”, McSweeney’s resignation “will quantity to little greater than harm limitation”.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, has warned that Morgan McSweeney’s resignation is not going to defend the prime minister, including that Keir Starmer’s place is “untenable”.
She instructed Sky Information that McSweeney was Starmer’s “adviser, however on the finish of the day, the buck stops with” the prime minister.
Johnson added:
[McSweeney] was not working alone; others have been accountable for bringing the get together into disrepute and countless factionalism.
His resignation is not going to defend the PM – his place is untenable.
Morgan McSweeney’s resignation comes simply days after Keir Starmer described him as an “important a part of my group”.
On Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch criticised McSweeney – who’s seen as having been instrumental in pushing for Peter Mandelson to develop into UK ambassador to the US – and pressed the prime minister on whether or not he nonetheless had confidence in him.
Starmer responded: “Morgan McSweeney is a necessary a part of my group. He helped me change the Labour get together and win an election. In fact, I’ve confidence.”
The next day, a Downing Avenue spokesperson mentioned Starmer had “full confidence” in his chief of workers.
Steve Reed additionally insisted on Thursday that the prime minister and McSweeney have been secure of their jobs.
Requested whether or not Starmer’s place is safe, the housing secretary instructed BBC Breakfast: “In fact it’s.”
On Sky Information, he was pressed on whether or not McSweeney is secure in his function, after being blamed by many Labour MPs for pushing for Mandelson’s appointment.
Reed answered: “Sure, in fact he’s.”
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster chief has mentioned Morgan McSweeney’s resignation “received’t save Keir Starmer”.
Posting on X, Liz Saville Roberts added: “Making a sacrificial lamb of his chief of workers can’t erase the prime minister’s personal failure of judgement in appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.”
Gordon McKee, the Labour MP for Glasgow South, has posted a prolonged assertion on social media in defence of Morgan McSweeney.
McKee acknowledged that “McSweeney made a mistake on Mandelson”, however added that “he’s not alone in that”.
What he’s alone in is his extraordinary means. Morgan began as a receptionist, and rose as much as virtually single handedly mastermind our return from the wilderness to a Labour Authorities.
McKee added: “As a member of workers he doesn’t get to rebut the nonsense that’s mentioned about him. I’ve identified him personally for six years, and he is without doubt one of the most respectable folks that I’ve ever met in politics.”
In a separate submit on X, McKee mentioned he is aware of McSweeney will “be appalled by the revelations about Peter Mandelson and pondering of the victims” of Jeffrey Epstein’s “horrific crimes”.
Sir Keir Starmer ought to “take a look at his personal place” and think about following Morgan McSweeney by stepping down, a Labour MP has mentioned.
Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, mentioned McSweeney’s “resignation as chief of workers to the prime minister is in the very best pursuits of the federal government”.
He was on the coronary heart of the political misjudgements and errors which were made since successful the overall election. It’s also in the very best pursuits of the Labour get together as he was instrumental within the lack of inside democracy and the tradition of intense factionalism we’re affected by.
Talking to the Press Affiliation, Leishman mentioned that there must be “change in political route and that comes from the very high, so the prime minister should take a look at his personal place and query whether or not he ought to observe McSweeney’s lead one final time, and resign for the nice of the nation and the Labour get together”.
Geraldine McKelvie
Within the early hours of 5 July 2024, Keir Starmer arrived at Tate Fashionable in central London to have fun Labour’s landslide election victory. As he ready to handle the throng of cheering activists, he was flanked by two folks: his spouse, Victoria, and his closest aide, Morgan McSweeney.
A reluctant McSweeney, it was reported, was dragged on stage by the soon-to-be prime minister to a roar from the get together’s foot troopers. A couple of years beforehand, this second had appeared inconceivable. Many consider that, with out McSweeney, it might have been.
Shortly earlier than Christmas 2019, below the management of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour had suffered its worst election defeat since 1935. Voters in swathes of the get together’s industrial heartlands within the north and the Midlands – from retired coalminers in County Durham to steelworkers in Scunthorpe – had battled the December parts to vote Tory for the primary time. Labour appeared misplaced to the unelectable exhausting left and a few predicted it might by no means win one other common election.
But fewer than 5 years later it had achieved simply that. Not solely had the get together clawed again most of its “purple wall”, it had triumphed in a handful of seats that had by no means earlier than had a Labour MP. McSweeney was credited because the brains behind one of the staggering political comebacks in British historical past.
The now disgraced Peter Mandelson, one of many architects of New Labour, summed up how the get together’s moderates as soon as felt about McSweeney when he mentioned: “I don’t know who and the way and when he was invented. However whoever it was, they are going to discover their place in heaven.”
But it’s McSweeney’s relationship together with his mentor Mandelson that has been his undoing.
Labour MP John Slinger has defended Keir Starmer and rejected requires him to step down.
In an announcement posted to X, the Rugby MP mentioned “we don’t ditch a pacesetter simply because the going will get robust”, including that “it’s within the nationwide curiosity for Keir Starmer to remain as prime minister”.
Slinger continued:
Since I’ve achieved that, I’ve been approached on the street by constituents telling me they heard me on the radio and completely agree. I’ve had CEOs of corporations message me to say they agree.
And I’ve had folks from throughout the nation, whether or not Labour or not, saying they suppose the very last thing the nation wants is management speculations and that we should always help the prime minister.
Keir Starmer ‘must go’, says Polanski
Zack Polanski, the chief of the Inexperienced get together, has referred to as for Keir Starmer to step down, saying Morgan McSweeney’s resignation was obligatory “however not ample”.
Reacting to McSweeney’s resignation on X, Polanski wrote: “Needed however not ample.
“He knew. And nonetheless appointed him. Starmer must go.”
As a reminder, McSweeney suggested the prime minister to nominate Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US regardless of his identified ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Farage predicts Starmer shall be out of No 10 after Labour’s anticipated ‘catastrophe’ in Might elections
Reform UK chief Nigel Farage mentioned in a social media submit:
As predicted McSweeney has gone. Labour are simply persevering with the chaos we noticed below the Tories. My cash says Starmer received’t be far behind after Labour’s catastrophe within the elections this coming Might.
The Might elections, which embrace contests for council seats throughout England, in addition to for the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, have lengthy been seen as a vital take a look at for Keir Starmer, who’s deeply unpopular with the general public.
The prime minister is anticipated to face open calls to resign if Labour suffers heavy losses in Might. Reform has constantly led in opinion polls, and poses an enormous menace to Labour, together with the Greens who’re taking votes from the get together’s left.
![[Win 11&Office 2019] 14″ Rose Gold FHD IPS Display Ultra-Thin Laptop, Celeron J4125 (2.0-2.7GHz), 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD, 180° Opening, 2xUSB3.0, WIFI/BT, Perfect for Travel, Study and Work (P1TB)](https://i3.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71CzO7Oc8jL._AC_SL1500_.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1)
