Morgan McSweeney is back advising the Prime Minister – four months after he resigned over his role in the Mandelson scandal.
The former No 10 chief of staff is advising Sir Keir Starmer in his moment of greatest peril, multiple government and Whitehall sources told The i Paper.
McSweeney is helping the Prime Minister and has “never really gone away”, one minister said.
“He has been on the end of the phone 24/7,” one source said. “He has been wargaming a leadership contest and believes Keir still has a chance if there are three or more [challengers] in the contest. He has been working out how the votes could go. It’s mad.”
The Prime Minister has once again turned to McSweeney, as he tries to face down an expected leadership challenge. Starmer’s Labour opponents are likely to become clearer if Andy Burnham returns to Westminster next week.
Three Government sources told this newspaper they believe McSweeney and Starmer are now regularly speaking on the phone.
A fourth Whitehall source said he had been told that McSweeney had physically been back inside the No 10 building.
Sources close to the PM have been keen to downplay the closeness of the relationship and describe claims he was back inside No 10 as “rubbish”. However they would not be drawn on how often the two men speak on the phone, or when they last had a discussion.
McSweeney’s growing influence is likely to anger the PM’s critics within Labour. Some of them blame McSweeney for the party’s woes, including his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, a “boys club” culture in No 10, and the direction of the Labour Party, which has seen a sharp fall in poll ratings as Reform surged.
McSweeney’s supporters credit him with Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 general election.
The pair went for a beer shortly after McSweeney’s resignation in February, Politico reported, and he also counselled the PM during the week when Burnham announced he would try to return to Parliament.
Starmer acknowledged that the pair then spoke “every few weeks”, but it is understood that their contact intensified following the failed coup against the PM.
When McSweeney resigned he said he took “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, who had been a close ally and political mentor. He explained that the decision had undermined trust in Labour, the country and politics itself, and that it was the “honourable course” for him to go.
The departure of Labour’s most consequential political figure in recent years came as a huge blow to Starmer, who had come to rely on McSweeney’s political judgement.
Among those who know Starmer best, McSweeney’s return as an adviser has come as little surprise. They believe he relies on McSweeney as his “political brain”.
However, the revelation is certain to frustrate Labour ministers and MPs who had called on McSweeney to quit over the role he played in Mandelson’s appointment, as well as those uncomfortable with the direction the party had taken on policy issues including immigration and welfare.
Critics also accuse McSweeney of presiding over what they described as a “boy’s club” mentality at the heart of government.
One MP commented: “If McSweeney is back it just goes to show the PM has learned nothing.”
Starmer’s premiership is once again hanging in the balance after the shock resignation of John Healey as Defence Secretary on Thursday. Al Carns, the Armed Forces Minister, also followed him out of the door following a dispute over military funding.
The timing could hardly be worse for Starmer ahead of the G7 meeting of world leaders in France, which begins on Monday, and the Makerfield by-election on Thursday, which could herald the return of Burnham as an MP. Burnham confirmed last week that if he returns to Parliament he will seek to join a leadership contest.
Speaking to the BBC earlier on Friday, Starmer said he did not want to “plunge” the country into the “chaos” of a leadership contest, but added: “If it does happen, I will fight.”
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