Why is Morgan McSweeney now a lightning rod for Labour rebels?

Times

a day ago

Morgan McSweeney's allies are fiercely loyal. This week the prime minister's chief of staff has been the subject of a series of vitriolic attacks from Labour MPs who are blaming him for the debacle surrounding the government's welfare reforms.
Ministers have accused him of presiding over a 'bunker mentality' in No 10 and some rebels have called for him to be removed from office as part of a 'regime change'. The time has come, they argue, for the 'overexcitable boys' to move on.
In the wake of the attacks, one government adviser shared a post on social media suggesting that removing McSweeney could spell the end of Sir Keir Starmer's premiership.
The post said: 'After losing him it will be nothing but legislating on MP pet projects, the civil service running the country … while Starmer is left running around chasing media stories until the [parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)] panics after the 2028 local elections and replaces him.'
McSweeney's influence cannot be overstated. The Irishman played a key role in transforming Starmer from a bastion of the soft left — a former human rights lawyer who backed a second referendum and was an arch-defender of free movement — into the man who took on Jeremy Corbyn and overhauled the Labour Party.
• Profile: Who is Morgan McSweeney?
With McSweeney at his side, Starmer moved firmly to the centre ground, helping Labour to a landslide victory in the election in the process. The Starmer of today has put defence and security and a strong dose of patriotism at the heart of his premiership, while also promulgating fiscal responsibility at every turn and taking a hardline stance on immigration.
Given Starmer's transformation, it is perhaps not surprising that McSweeney has become a lightning rod for criticism over the government's welfare reforms. Labour rebels see the cuts as part of a broader plan to shift the party to the right and appeal to Reform UK voters who want a tougher line on benefits.
• Starmer is dangerously vulnerable over welfare reforms
The cuts, they argue, are being driven by a combination of an 'arbitrary' approach to balancing the books and political opportunism. They are highly critical of the handling of the policy in No 10. MPs say that a rebellion that was eminently avoidable has blown up into a full-blown crisis for Starmer because Downing Street stopped listening.
For some rebels it is deeply personal. 'I wouldn't be f***ing backing down now anyway, not after the 'noises off' comments [from Starmer at a press conference this week] and the briefing that they had 'cleared the self-indulgent rubbish out',' one said.
'Who the eff do they think they are? It's just desperation and it's sickening. Do you remember when Dominic Cummings went to Barnard Castle and the story became about him? When the story becomes about you, it's time to go, so when is Morgan going to go?'
A senior government source said: 'There clearly needs to be a complete reset in how we approach the party. No 10 did not listen and did not engage until it was far too late and now they're in a hole of their own making.'
Where once McSweeney, the mastermind of Labour's landslide, was untouchable, today the briefings abound. 'There's a bit of 'emperor's new clothes' going on,' one government source said. 'When you see him up close, you see he's not what everyone thinks he is. He isn't this brilliant mastermind. He's a man of the moment who's taken advantage of it, but he has manoeuvred himself into these positions.'
Others believe that McSweeney is being used as a proxy for wider unhappiness with Starmer; that, like so many senior No 10 advisers before him — Sue Gray, his predecessor as Starmer's chief of staff, and Cummings, Boris Johnson's senior adviser — he has become an easy target.
Far from being political, they say, the move to curb the benefits bill is born of a moral and economic necessity; that with 1,000 extra people claiming disability benefits every day, the current system is broken and unsustainable. People are being denied the dignity of work — a view shared by both McSweeney and Starmer.
McSweeney clearly divides opinion. Members of the 100-strong Labour Growth group were quick to defend him. 'It's very clear he gets that [the] cost of living is the crucial issue facing people and knows we've got to be on the side of people who are feeling that,' one member said. 'There was clear alignment on how ambitious we need to be in turning around the economy so we can do that.'
• Call for 'regime change' as Keir Starmer aide faces welfare backlash
The trouble for both Starmer and McSweeney is that the Labour Party is becoming ever more recalcitrant as the reality of the party's collapse in the polls sets in.
Lord Blunkett, a former Labour home secretary, said: 'We may have a very large majority, but many backbenchers are looking at the opinion polls and wondering where they will be in three and a half years' time.'
The risk, according to some, is that the Labour Party will become ungovernable. 'Keir has been completely deluged by world affairs,' said one MP close to Starmer. 'He's been told by his massive team that they have this under control when they do not. This is on them.
'No 10 has entered complete bunker mentality. Last week, they were calm. Now, they are irate. They think that if they give in now the PLP will be ungovernable. But we're past that point. Pandora's box has been opened with the backbenchers.'