Morgan McSweeney | |
---|---|
Downing Street Chief of Staff | |
Assumed office 6 October 2024 | |
Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
Deputy |
|
Preceded by | Sue Gray |
Head of Political Strategy 10 Downing Street | |
In office 5 July 2024 –6 October 2024 ServingwithPaul Ovenden | |
Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
Preceded by | Office established |
Director of Campaigns to the Leader of the Opposition | |
In office September 2022 –5 July 2024 | |
Leader | Keir Starmer |
Preceded by | Office established |
Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 4 April 2020 –20 June 2021 | |
Leader | Keir Starmer |
Succeeded by | Sam White |
Personal details | |
Born | 1977 (age 46–47) Macroom,County Cork,Ireland |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Imogen Walker |
Children | 1 |
Education | Middlesex 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 earlier the campaign manager for the Labour Party and director of the think tank Labour Together. [2]
McSweeney built a reputation as a Labour organiser,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 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]
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]
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]
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 on a potential replacement of then leader Jeremy Corbyn and reforms to 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 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]
Starmer succeeded in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election on 4 April 2020 with 56.2% of the vote and choose McSweeney as his chief of staff. [10] [8]
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 Chief of Staff to a "strategic role" in his office,though he remained as Starmer's "number one adviser". [14]
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 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]
Following 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]
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]
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]
McSweeney is married to Imogen Walker,the Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley. They have a son. [7] [9] [27]
The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September,during the party conference season when the House of Commons is in recess,after each year's second Liberal Democrat Conference and before the Conservative Party Conference. The Labour Party Conference opens on a Sunday and finishes the following Wednesday,with an address by the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party;the Leader's address is usually on the Tuesday. In contrast to the Liberal Democrat Conference,where every party member attending its Conference,either in-person or online,has the right to vote on party policy,under a one member,one vote system,or the Conservative Party Conference,which does not hold votes on party policy,at the Labour Party Conference,50% of votes are allocated to affiliated organisations,and the other 50% to Constituency Labour Parties,but all voting in both categories is restricted to nominated representatives. Conference decisions are not binding on the party leadership,even if carried unanimously.
The Socialist Campaign Group,also simply known as the Campaign Group,is a UK parliamentary caucus of the Labour Party including Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. The group also includes some MPs who formerly represented Labour in Parliament but have had the whip withdrawn or been expelled from the party.
Jon Hedley Trickett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and Hemsworth,previously Hemsworth,since 1996. He was Shadow Lord President of the Council from 2016 to 2020 and served as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2013 and 2017 to 2020. He was the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator under Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2017.
Patrick Bosco McFadden is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party,he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East since 2005. McFadden has previously held various junior ministerial positions and shadow portfolios in his parliamentary career between 2005 and 2024.
The British left can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as shorthand for groups aligned with the Labour Party. It can also refer to other individuals,groups and political parties that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic,political,and cultural institutions of the United Kingdom. There are various sub-groups,split between reformist and revolutionary viewpoints. Progressives and social democrats believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures,but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists,communists,and socialists,among others on the far left,on the other hand argue for abolition of the capitalist system.
SirKeir Rodney Starmer is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2020 to 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015,and was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
Lisa Eva Nandy is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture,Media and Sport since 2024. She has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. Nandy previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary,Shadow Levelling Up Secretary,Shadow Energy Secretary and Shadow International Development Minister.
Unite the Union,commonly known as Unite,is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Along with Unison,Unite is one of the two largest trade unions in the UK,with over 1.2 million members in construction,manufacturing,transport,logistics and other sectors. The general secretary of Unite is Sharon Graham,who was elected on 25 August 2021 with 46,696 votes on a turnout of 124,127,with her term beginning on 26 August 2021.
Angela Rayner is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing,Communities and Local Government since July 2024. She has been Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey is a British independent,formerly Labour Party politician and solicitor who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford,previously Salford and Eccles,since 2015. She served in the Shadow Cabinet under Jeremy Corbyn,first as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2017 and then as Shadow Business Secretary from 2017 to 2020. Under Keir Starmer,she served as Shadow Education Secretary from April to June 2020.
Simon Fletcher is a prominent figure on the left of the British Labour Party. He is a left wing political strategist and campaigner who has held senior positions working for socialist politicians including the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and leader of the opposition,Jeremy Corbyn.
The 2020 Labour Party leadership election was triggered after Jeremy Corbyn announced his intention to resign as the leader of the Labour Party following the party's defeat at the 2019 general election. It was won by Keir Starmer,who received 56.2 per cent of the vote on the first round and went on to become Prime Minister after winning the 2024 general election. It was held alongside the deputy leadership election,in which Angela Rayner was elected to succeed Tom Watson as deputy leader after Watson retired from Parliament in November 2019,in advance of the election.
Samuel Peter Tarry is a British former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South from 2019 until 2024. He was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 10 October 2022 he was deselected by the Ilford South Constituency Labour Party as its candidate for the next general election.
Tom Baldwin is a British journalist,author and former Labour Party senior adviser. He has worked as a journalist for a number of national titles including The Times and The Sunday Telegraph. He was also a senior political adviser to Ed Miliband,and director of communications and strategy at the Labour Party. He has written a book,Ctrl Alt Delete,about technology's "abusive relationship with truth in media and politics" over the past thirty years. He was communications director at the People's Vote campaign.
The Starmer Project:A Journey to the Right is a 2022 book by British journalist Oliver Eagleton,published by Verso Books. It is a political biography of British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer,and follows his time in the Crown Prosecution Service and Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn,his predecessor,covering his political alliances,his victory in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election,and subsequent leadership of the Labour Party.
Keir Starmer served as Leader of the Opposition from April 2020,following the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn after Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election and Starmer's election as Labour leader in the ensuing leadership election,until his party won a landslide victory at the 2024 general election in July 2024. During his tenure,Starmer moved Labour toward the political centre and emphasised the elimination of antisemitism within the party.
On 4 September 2023,Keir Starmer,Leader of the UK Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition,carried out a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet. This was his third major reshuffle and was described as promoting his loyalists to senior roles.
Labour Together,formerly known as Common Good Labour,is a British think tank closely associated with the Labour Party. Founded in June 2015,it supported Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. It works to measure public opinion and develop political policy. The group supported Labour in the 2024 general election,as well as for a second term in government. It is regarded by The Guardian,Politico,The Times,and Business Insider as a highly influential group upon the Starmer-led Labour Party,and seen as an "incubator" of its 2024 manifesto. It has sought to resemble the centre-right think tank Onward.
Stuart Ingham is a British political adviser who has served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit since July 2024.
Issues regarding Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism within the Labour Party have been the subject of controversy.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)