The sacking of Peter Mandelson has piled yet more pressure on Keir Starmer, with questions raised over his judgment and whether he overrode the advice of the security services in appointing him as ambassador to the US.
But it could give the Prime Minister another headache by bringing down Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street’s powerful chief-of-staff and the architect of Starmer’s takeover of the Labour Party.
McSweeney was reportedly pushing for his long-time ally Mandelson to remain as US ambassador on Wednesday, after the press began to scrutinise the New Labour grandee’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein more closely.
Whilst there may be an element of blame passing behind these briefings, the close relationship between Mandelson and McSweeney is well documented.
McSweeney’s first proper job in the Labour Party was working in its attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank in the early 2000s.
There, he worked on Mandelson’s “Excalibur” database, which collected information about political opponents of New Labour (including disloyal Labour MPs) that would then be given to journalists. He would apply the lessons he learned during this period during his later takeover of the Labour Party.
During Starmer’s rise to power, his team trawled through Facebook groups looking for connections between Left-wingers and anti-Semitic content that had been shared online. According to Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund’s account of Labour’s post-Corbyn reinvention, the blue print for this campaign was a paper called “Labour for the Country”, which McSweeney wrote with the help of Mandelson.
Their closeness is no surprise, as they are of the same mould. Like Mandelson, McSweeney is firmly of the Labour Right and has fought running battles with the Left for most of his political career. Like Mandelson, he is a ruthless individual who is not afraid of using the dark arts to achieve his purposes.
But there is another similarity between the two which is the source of their shared troubles, a lack of regard and respect for the rules. Mandelson was first forced to resign in 1998 when he failed to declare an interest-free loan in the Register of Members Interests, which he used to buy a house. McSweeney was also enmeshed in a scandal in 2021, when Labour Together, the campaign group that he founded to surreptitiously take over the Labour Party was investigated by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare over £800,000 of donations.
Of these undeclared donations, £730,000 had taken place when McSweeney was still director. Labour Together’s defence was that this had been an “administrative oversight”, which was not accepted by the Electoral Commission, who fined the organisation £14,250 in September 2021.
Labour Together was supposed to host Peter Mandelson for an event at the Labour Party Conference on October 8 this year, where he was supposed to appear alongside Jonathan Reynolds MP for a panel on industrial strategy. The web page showing Labour Together’s conference schedule has been taken down, however, it is still visible on the Internet Archive.
It is perhaps touching that Morgan McSweeney attempted to save the career of his long-standing friend and political ally, but he has shown poor political judgment by involving himself in the incident. The latest Cabinet reshuffle has been described by Labour sources as McSweeney’s “last roll of the dice” as he has empowered key allies such as Shabana Mahmood. He is seen by much of the Parliamentary Labour Party as emblematic of the faltering rightward shift on issues like immigration and spending, which have enraged much of the Labour voting base and membership.
The mobilisation of the soft-Left against the Right of the party has now come out into the open, with Andy Burnham setting up a new political pressure group with the aim to change the party leadership such that it is “more inclusive, less factional”, a coded swipe at McSweeney’s robust style of political management.
His long-standing campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, where charges of anti-Semitism were weaponised to attack not just activists but also media organisations like The Canary, is also fuelling the disillusionment of the Left, who are increasingly splitting off to new challengers such as the Green Party and “Your Party”.
The increasing scrutiny of the US administration towards free speech in Britain will also have consequences for McSweeney. McSweeney helped set up the “Centre for Countering Digital Hate”, which claimed responsibility for the passage of the Online Safety Act, and has longstanding connections to Hope Not Hate, a self-described “anti-fascist” organisation, that targets American citizens whose views they deem controversial.
McSweeney has made many enemies, and is in a vulnerable position. Trying to save the career of his friend Peter Mandelson, whilst laudable, may prove to be a politically fatal mistake.
John Power is an assistant content editor at The Spectator
The sacking of Peter Mandelson has piled yet more pressure on Keir Starmer, with questions raised over his judgment and whether he overrode the advice of the security services in appointing him as ambassador to the US.
But it could give the Prime Minister another headache by bringing down Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street’s powerful chief-of-staff and the architect of Starmer’s takeover of the Labour Party.
McSweeney was reportedly pushing for his long-time ally Mandelson to remain as US ambassador on Wednesday, after the press began to scrutinise the New Labour grandee’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein more closely.
Whilst there may be an element of blame passing behind these briefings, the close relationship between Mandelson and McSweeney is well documented.
McSweeney’s first proper job in the Labour Party was working in its attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank in the early 2000s.
There, he worked on Mandelson’s “Excalibur” database, which collected information about political opponents of New Labour (including disloyal Labour MPs) that would then be given to journalists. He would apply the lessons he learned during this period during his later takeover of the Labour Party.
During Starmer’s rise to power, his team trawled through Facebook groups looking for connections between Left-wingers and anti-Semitic content that had been shared online. According to Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund’s account of Labour’s post-Corbyn reinvention, the blue print for this campaign was a paper called “Labour for the Country”, which McSweeney wrote with the help of Mandelson.
Their closeness is no surprise, as they are of the same mould. Like Mandelson, McSweeney is firmly of the Labour Right and has fought running battles with the Left for most of his political career. Like Mandelson, he is a ruthless individual who is not afraid of using the dark arts to achieve his purposes.
But there is another similarity between the two which is the source of their shared troubles, a lack of regard and respect for the rules. Mandelson was first forced to resign in 1998 when he failed to declare an interest-free loan in the Register of Members Interests, which he used to buy a house. McSweeney was also enmeshed in a scandal in 2021, when Labour Together, the campaign group that he founded to surreptitiously take over the Labour Party was investigated by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare over £800,000 of donations.
Of these undeclared donations, £730,000 had taken place when McSweeney was still director. Labour Together’s defence was that this had been an “administrative oversight”, which was not accepted by the Electoral Commission, who fined the organisation £14,250 in September 2021.
Labour Together was supposed to host Peter Mandelson for an event at the Labour Party Conference on October 8 this year, where he was supposed to appear alongside Jonathan Reynolds MP for a panel on industrial strategy. The web page showing Labour Together’s conference schedule has been taken down, however, it is still visible on the Internet Archive.
It is perhaps touching that Morgan McSweeney attempted to save the career of his long-standing friend and political ally, but he has shown poor political judgment by involving himself in the incident. The latest Cabinet reshuffle has been described by Labour sources as McSweeney’s “last roll of the dice” as he has empowered key allies such as Shabana Mahmood. He is seen by much of the Parliamentary Labour Party as emblematic of the faltering rightward shift on issues like immigration and spending, which have enraged much of the Labour voting base and membership.
The mobilisation of the soft-Left against the Right of the party has now come out into the open, with Andy Burnham setting up a new political pressure group with the aim to change the party leadership such that it is “more inclusive, less factional”, a coded swipe at McSweeney’s robust style of political management.
His long-standing campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, where charges of anti-Semitism were weaponised to attack not just activists but also media organisations like The Canary, is also fuelling the disillusionment of the Left, who are increasingly splitting off to new challengers such as the Green Party and “Your Party”.
The increasing scrutiny of the US administration towards free speech in Britain will also have consequences for McSweeney. McSweeney helped set up the “Centre for Countering Digital Hate”, which claimed responsibility for the passage of the Online Safety Act, and has longstanding connections to Hope Not Hate, a self-described “anti-fascist” organisation, that targets American citizens whose views they deem controversial.
McSweeney has made many enemies, and is in a vulnerable position. Trying to save the career of his friend Peter Mandelson, whilst laudable, may prove to be a politically fatal mistake.
John Power is an assistant content editor at The Spectator