What Morgan McSweeney did in the shadows is set to haunt Starmer's Labour

One of the most unhealthy recent developments in British politics has been the emergence of the behind-the-scenes operator.

Tony Blair’s eminence grise was Peter Mandelson. Boris Johnson employed Dominic Cummings - who later sought to destroy his premiership.

With Keir Starmer we have Morgan McSweeney, the Downing Street chief of staff.

Just three weeks ago few voters knew anything much about McSweeney. Now he has been hauled out of the shadows. This is not just an ugly, public spectacle. It reveals the truth about the sordid system of politics which is poisoning public life in Britain today.

The political crisis started with the scandal over links between Peter Mandelson and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. McSweeney had pushed for Mandelson, whom he regards as his mentor, to be appointed ambassador to Washington.

Details have leaked of an angry personal exchange between the prime minister and his senior adviser. Starmer is reported to have shouted at McSweeney: "You are supposed to protect me from things like this.” 

Almost at once the embarrassment of Mandelson’s departure was compounded by a second blow to McSweeney’s Downing Street machine. 

Paul Ovenden, director of political strategy and a close ally, resigned after it emerged that he was the author of offensive and sexual text messages about Diane Abbott, Britain's first black woman MP.

The Ovenden departure was forced by a revelation in a forthcoming book by the investigative journalist Paul Holden titled The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy.

And now comes the third and by far the most dangerous development.

Secret and unlawful

Holden’s book will contain allegations of irregularities concerning what he calls "a secret unlawful fund" and more than £700,000 of hidden donations to a think tank run by McSweeney.

These revelations are potentially dangerous for McSweeney. Far more importantly, they may impact viscerally on Starmer himself.

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This is because, according to Holden, the purpose of McSweeney’s think tank, misleadingly called Labour Together, was to supercharge Starmer’s path to Downing Street.

Once Starmer was installed in No 10 he rewarded McSweeney by making him Downing Street chief of staff.

The Tory Party is now claiming that new evidence has come to light that “raises the question of whether a criminal offence has been committed”. 

In a letter to the Electoral Commission, Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake makes the devastating allegation that the “funds were used by Labour Together in a sustained political campaign to bring down Jeremy Corbyn and secure the election of Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party”. 

This is especially significant because official records show Starmer did not declare any support from the group in the official Commons register. 

Under the Commons code of conduct, MPs are required to declare support worth more than £1,500 designed to help their "candidacy at an election for parliamentary or non-parliamentary office".

To put the charges made into plain English, the Tories are in effect accusing McSweeney of arranging a secret slush fund to launch Starmer into Downing Street.  

On Wednesday, cabinet minister Pat McFadden dismissed the Tory claims about wrongdoing by McSweeney. He told the BBC Today programme that "the Electoral Commission have looked into that. They’ve said there is nothing to add here. They are the people actually charged with policing the rules around declarations to nations... And they looked into this as far back, I think, as 2021."

McSweeney and Starmer nevertheless have many questions to answer. 

Thus far Downing Street is refusing to answer questions about McSweeney’s time at Labour Together, while Starmer has “full confidence” in his chief of staff.

Whether this confidence can survive the publication of Holden’s forthcoming book remains to be seen. One so far unnoticed aspect of this affair should especially disturb Downing Street. 

Serious and dangerous work

Holden is the antithesis of the back-slapping lobby journalist who typically flourishes at Westminster. 

His expertise is investigation into corruption. For example, he worked directly with the Zondo Commission on state capture in South Africa to assist its investigations into the money laundering schemes used to hide the theft of state funds in that country.

Holden's book illustrates Starmer’s careen from the honourable left to the racist right of British politics - and places McSweeney at the heart of that journey

This is painstaking, exceptionally serious and sometimes dangerous work: real journalism as opposed to the client reporting that often passes muster at Westminster.

Holden pursues a type of journalism that requires extraordinary dedication, courage and expertise. This should frighten McSweeney and Starmer.

They are accustomed to reporters seeking access who can be fobbed off with a giveaway front-page scoop or a quiet word with their boss. There was a reason why McSweeney placed himself next to Rupert Murdoch at the state banquet for Donald Trump.

Holden cannot be bought. He cannot be bribed. He cannot be intimidated.

I have read his book in proof, and it is unlike any other political book I have read. It illustrates Starmer’s career from the honourable left to the racist right of British politics - and places McSweeney at the heart of that journey.

It is important to remember that McSweeney - like Mandelson and Cummings before him - has done terrible damage to our public life. 

The speciality of their sort of backstairs fixer is manoevring, calculation and the pursuit of power for power’s sake. I can’t detect any sense of the public good or deep moral purpose in McSweeney.

He has zero generous vision of the moral purpose of which Labour stands for. McSweeney’s bleak analysis almost certainly lies behind Starmer’ hideous reversion to the racist politics of Enoch Powell, turning barbarously on minorities with talk of an "island of strangers".

A shocking error of judgment

Indeed the McSweeney/Starmer project can only succeed by preying on divisions and creating new ones. That is the route that McSweeney and Starmer have chosen to secure power.

It would be wrong for me to break confidences about the further revelations which will emerge from Holden’s detailed book.

Starmer would not find himself in the current quagmire had he retained Baroness Gray and steered clear of McSweeney

But it is fair to say that it illustrates how a tiny Blairite clique captured the Labour Party through unscrupulous and despicable means. 

The publisher’s blurb promises stories about “hacked emails, anonymous smears, dodgy dossiers, cynical stitch-ups, and staggering hypocrisy”.

I wish Holden well because his book exposes the unsavoury gang that governs contemporary Britain.

One figure who will be watching developments with personal interest is the deposed Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray. Baroness Gray was for many years a highly respected civil servant. In particular she was known for her integrity and an old-fashioned respect for due process.

These qualities earned her Starmer's admiration, so much so that she was his first choice as chief of staff after he became prime minister in July last year.

There followed a brief and one-sided power struggle. After a press campaign against her, characterised by vicious leaks apparently from within Downing Street, Baroness Gray was forced out. McSweeney took her place.

How the prime minister will be regretting that decision!

Baroness Gray would never have allowed Mandelson to go to Washington. She would never have tolerated Labour Together’s slapdash approach to finances. 

Starmer would not find himself in the current quagmire had he retained Baroness Gray and steered clear of McSweeney.

The prime minister is paying a heavy price indeed for his shocking error of judgment.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.