What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story
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What motivated Morgan McSweeney to join Labour politics and rise from a receptionist to chief of staff?
My guest on Political Thinking This Week is the architect of one of the most stunning political comebacks in British history, taking the Labour Party from the brink of oblivion to a huge election landslide that should have given them carte blanche to reshape the country. Pretty much however they liked. Morgan McSweeney is the once synonymous activist who went from receptionist at Labour Party HQ to Chief of Staff to Keir Starmer at number 10. At the height of his power, he was described as the most powerful unelected official in the country, even a latter-day Thomas Cromwell. And like Cromwell, he had has maybe more than his fair share of enemies who accuse him. of shaping a Labour Party that appeared to stand for nothing, ruthlessly purging anyone who dared to disagree with him, and persuading Keir Starmer to make Peter Mandelson our man in Washington.
A decision which led to McSweeney's resignation a few months before his boss followed suit. Now he's never given an interview. He has served his party behind the scenes. Until now.
Morgan McSweeney. Welcome to political thinking. Thank you very much, Nick. In less than three weeks time your old boss Keir Starmer's gonna leave Downing Street. We in the course of our conversation will talk quite a lot about things that went right, things that went wrong. But as you l wait for that moment, Do you kind of have a summary view? Where did it all go wrong? Why are we in the position we're in?
I'm still processing it all to be honest with you. I haven't worked it all through. It's very sad. Uh I couldn't watch all of his press conference because I I found it quite sad. I thought he went wit with great grace. Uh I think about the privilege it was as well, how uh to uh go through those six years with him, to be in amazing situations where you're in the room, the country's been changed, winning elections. Um But I think uh for me one of the main less well, some of the main lessons are uh preparation. uh is far more important to strategy when it comes to just about any aspect of politics. I think politics moves a lot faster these days. Uh it moves faster than the institutions uh that govern it um uh are ready for.
Um and uh and and I and I think you don't have uh enough time to get it right. You have to start delivering for people very quickly. You run out of political capital soon and um so it's disappointing. It's a disappointing end, but I wouldn't have I wouldn't have swapped it for the world.
But in summary it sounds like you're saying you were A little underprepared for government. And underprepared for the sheer speed of politics. The speed at which that vast majority you got suddenly looks like a weight round your neck rather than a great asset.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I I think I think that's right. I think that we didn't prepare enough for what kind of world we were gonna be in. We're now in a very different era um than when Labour was last in government. And I think we didn't have enough conversations at the top of the party about what that meant, how to prepare for it, what that meant for the state, uh how the state needed to be reformed. Uh because in lots of ways the state is really out of shape and is unable to deliver for people. people um and so people are frustrated um and to understand enough about the mood of the country because People talk a lot about voters are not patient. It's not patience they lack. It's time. They've waited a very long time to get changed.
They keep getting promised that and they and they haven't seen it being delivered. So You have to deliver quite quickly, uh, for people, um, for them to see the change quickly. And I think we didn't come in with enough of a theory about how we would do that and why that was important.
And was that because all minds were just on winning? It was such a tall mountain that you had to climb. Let's be honest, many people thought it was impossible to win after the defeat of twenty nineteen that you were kind of single mindedly focused on victory rather than on governing.
Yeah, the time and opposition went quickly.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What motivated Morgan McSweeney to join Labour politics and rise from a receptionist to chief of staff?
0:00–9:28
2
Why does Morgan say he was under‑prepared for government and how did that affect the Starmer administration?
9:28–17:34
3
How did anti‑semitism within Labour become a moral crisis and what actions were taken to address it?
17:34–25:03
4
What role did the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador play in Project Starmer’s downfall?
25:03–33:17
5
How did the UK‑US relationship with Donald Trump and the Ukraine war shape the government’s priorities?
33:17–40:42
6
Why does Morgan argue that gender dynamics and a ‘boys‑club’ culture harmed Labour’s internal cohesion?
40:42–49:00
7
What lessons does Morgan offer for future chief‑of‑staffs about preparation, communication and policy clarity?
49:00–56:42
8
What does Morgan see as the next chapter for himself and for Labour after leaving Downing Street?
56:42–1:05:16
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
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