Starmer's survival without McSweeney hangs in the balance, as he confronts deepest perilpublished at 19:51 GMT

19:51 GMT

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It is impossible to overstate the centrality of Morgan McSweeney to Keir Starmer’s political leadership.

His campaign to lead the Labour Party. His leadership of it in opposition. His leadership of the country since the general election — all have happened with McSweeney at his side.

He and we - Starmer and the country - are about to find out if the prime minister can survive without him.

To understand the importance of McSweeney’s role requires a sense of the scale of his political heritage and campaigning within the Labour Party - which was huge. And the equal and opposite lack of both from Starmer - a man who arrived in Westminster in his fifties and has sought to make a virtue of travelling light ideologically.

McSweeney has been something of a lightning conductor for the PM for some time.

The question now is whether absorbing the blame for the electric storm of recent days protects the prime minister, or whether his departure means that come the next bright dagger of political jeopardy, it is Starmer himself who is hit directly.

Both could be true.

Even the prime minister’s closest allies acknowledge privately tonight he confronts a moment of the deepest peril.

Expect him to try, in the coming days, to get on the front foot - and try, yet again - to explain what drives him and what his government is all about. He knows this could well be his last chance to do so.

• We're now ending our live coverage, for the latest updates on McSweeney's resignation head to our news story

Ben Hatton
Live reporter

Image source, Shutterstock

Morgan McSweeney has resigned as Keir Starmer's chief of staff following pressure over his role in the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador last year. Here's what you need to know:

The resignation

It came hours after another of Starmer's allies, Pat McFadden, told BBC's Laura Kuenssberg there was "no point... whatsoever" in getting rid of him.

In his resignation statement, McSweeney took "full responsibility" for advising Starmer to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador last year.

Starmer said in a statement that it was "an honour" to work with him, but did not mention Mandelson.

The Mandelson controversy

The PM and his former chief of staff have come under fire for Mandleson's appointment. The former US ambassador is being investigated by police over claims he passed sensitive information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The BBC understands Mandelson's position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.

Two new acting chiefs of staff appointed

Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson - McSweeney's joint deputies - have been appointed as the PM's chiefs of staff, Downing Street confirms.

Political reaction

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says "it's about time McSweeney left, but adds: "Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions."

The Lib Dems say Starmer "can change his advisers all he likes, but the buck stops with him", while the SNP call for him to go. Reform says "Labour are just continuing the chaos we saw under the Tories".

We'll shortly be ending our live coverage, but in our next post we'll bring you the latest analysis from our political editor Chris Mason.

In the hours since Morgan McSweeney's resignation we've heard from several Labour MPs, and it seems opinions are divided:

Gordon McKee, MP for Glasgow South, says McSweeney was "not alone" in his mistake over Mandelson. McKee says, though, that the former chief of staff "is his extraordinary ability, he is one of the most decent people that I've ever met in politics".

Alloa and Grangemouth MPBrian Leishman strikes a different tone, saying "there must be a change in political direction" and calls for Starmer to "look at his own position" and question whether he should "resign for the good of the country and the Labour Party".

John Slinger, Rugby's Labour MP, calls for Labour to "rally behind the prime minister". He says: "We don’t ditch a leader just because the going gets tough."

Norwich South MP Clive Lewis says: "McSweeney’s resignation should not be treated as a cleansing moment. He was not an aberration. He was the tip of an iceberg."

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central tells BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour there is a "very tight timetable for Keir Starmer to prove that he has got it in him to lead us forward".

A little earlier, we reported that Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson have been appointed as the prime minister's acting chiefs of staff following Morgan McSweeney's resignation.

But what do we know about them?

Vidhya Alakeson

Alakeson, the former Resolution Foundation think tank deputy chief executive, served in the No 10 strategy unit and the Treasury during the last Labour government.

She has responsibility for policy and delivery and has managed Downing Street’s external relationships.

Before Labour entered office, she forged ties with the business community as the party’s director of external relations.

Jill Cuthbertson

Cuthbertson has been described as Starmer's ultimate gatekeeper and manages his diary.

She ran his office when he was leader of the opposition, having previously held similar roles for former Labour leaders Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown.

Richard Wheeler
Political reporter

Image source, Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Morgan McSweeney is the latest senior aide to quit Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation.

His predecessor as the prime minister’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, left the role in October 2024 just months after Labour won the general election.

Baroness Gray, who investigated Covid-era rule-breaking in Boris Johnson’s government when working as a senior civil servant, left Starmer's team following reports of a power struggle between her and other aides.

Matthew Doyle served as the PM's communications chief in opposition before leaving after nine months, emailing colleagues that it was "time to pass the baton on".

He was replaced by Steph Driver and James Lyons, both of whom have since left No 10.

Paul Ovenden also resigned as No 10’s director of political strategy in September 2025 after offensive messages he had sent in 2017 surfaced.

Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson have been asked to be the prime minister's acting chiefs of staff, Downing Street has confirmed.

Downing Street have confirmed the appointments of the pair, who were Morgan McSweeney's joint deputies before he resigned.

This comes after The Guardian's Pippa Crerar tweeted: "NEW: An email has just gone round No 10 staff confirming that the PM has asked Jill Cuthbertson and Vidhya Alakeson to be acting chiefs of staff, with immediate effect."

Image source, PA Media

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn says Starmer "showed appalling personal judgement" in appointing Mandelson as US ambassador and the decision "is entirely on him".

"Whenever Keir Starmer makes a catastrophic error of judgement, someone else is always forced to carry the can. It won’t wash with voters this time. Advisers only advise," he says.

"Starmer is a lame duck leader. He should take personal responsibility and follow Morgan McSweeney out the door before he does any more damage," Flynn adds.

Reform leader Nigel Farage says "Labour are just continuing the chaos we saw under the Tories".

He says "my money says Starmer won’t be far behind" after May's local elections.

Image source, Jon Rowley/Getty Images

Chris Mason
Political editor

The prime minister is expected to publicly address the government’s plans to try to address the issues arising from the Lord Mandelson scandal as soon as tomorrow.

Keir Starmer is also likely to emphasise that despite the loss of his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney - a key figure by his side for years - the government’s focus will remain the same.

Ministers from Starmer down will continue to emphasise what they believe they are doing to help with the cost of living and to stimulate economic growth.

As for what prompted McSweeney’s resignation, it is understood that both the prime minister and his now former chief of staff decided that this was the right moment for him to leave.

Image source, Reuters

In September last year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the sacking of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States during an urgent question in the House of Commons.

It came after Downing Street said new information about the depth of the relationship between Mandelson and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had emerged - including emails showing he sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced charges for sex offences in 2008.

"The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment," the Foreign Office wrote in a statement at the time.

Downing Street said Keir Starmer found the emails "reprehensible", and that it was "not involved" in the security vetting before Mandelson's appointment - here's more on the vetting process which has come under more scrutiny in recent days.

In the last few days, Starmer has accused Lord Mandelson of lying throughout the process and misrepresenting the extent of their relationship. The BBC understands Mandelson's view is that he answered questions about his relationship with Epstein in the vetting process accurately.

The latest tranche of documents released as part of the Epstein Files unearthed new information about the convicted sex offender's contact with Lord Mandelson.

It included emails showing Epstein sent £10,000 to Lord Mandelson's partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva in 2009. There is no suggestion Da Silva was involved in any wrongdoing.

The release sparked Lord Mandelson's resignation from the Labour Party after more than four decades, while he is also stepping down from the House of Lords.

It also included emails which appear to suggest he forwarded on market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary under Brown in 2009.

The Metropolitan Police have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office.

Lord Mandelson has not commented on the emails but the BBC understands his position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.

He has previously expressed his regret at continuing his relationship with Epstein after his conviction and apologised to his victims.

The resignation of the prime minister's chief of staff comes just days after Starmer described McSweeney as "an essential part of my team".

He was responding at Prime Minister's Questions after Badenoch said Starmer had chosen "to inject Mandelson’s poison into the heart of his government on the advice of Morgan McSweeney", and asked if the PM still had confidence in his adviser.

"He helped me change the Labour Party and win an election. Of course, I have confidence," Starmer told the House of Commons in defence of his top adviser.

Like previous advisers in Downing Street, such as Dominic Cummings or Alastair Campbell, McSweeney has come under scrutiny, but Starmer has consistently stood by him.

During a row late last year over whether McSweeney was linked to anonymous briefings against Labour cabinet ministers, one ally of the prime minister told the BBC: "They are coming for Morgan because they want to get Keir."

A gift for opposition parties, as Labour insiders wonder who fills the role nextpublished at 15:57 GMT

15:57 GMT

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

The next couple of days could be pretty brutal for the Labour Party, with rows over whose fault Mandelson's appointment really was.

McSweeney's taken the fall. But what about the PM's own role? What about Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser? Many in Labour had long been unhappy at way they thought McSweeney ran No 10. They often laid policy decisions, mishaps and mistakes at his door. The truth is he'd had a target on his back for many months.

A McSweeney ally tells me it's "absurd that he has resigned over a bit of advice when there were people who have known Peter for decades pushing for his hiring and are now pretending it was nothing to do with them."

Some Labour MPs are hailing McSweeney departure - Richard Burgon, on the left of the party, says it's an "important first step".

The argument in party will run over whether it was inevitable, right, or wrong.

What's definitely clear is it's a gift for the opposition parties, and chucking chiefs of staff over the side rarely solves big longer term problems for any leader.

In the meantime, Labour insiders are scratching their heads over who will take the job of Starmer's chief of staff next.

We can bring you some reaction to McSweeney's departure from opposition parties:

• Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper says the PM "can change his advisers all he likes, but the buck stops with him"
• Green Party leader Zack Polanski describes McSweeney's departure as "necessary but not sufficient". Writing on X, he adds: "He [Starmer] knew. And still appointed him [Mandelson]. Starmer needs to go"
• Robert Jenrick, who recently defected from the Tories to Reform, says: "We’re in a real mess and things need turning around. Instead this Labour government is talking about Peter Mandelson"

As a reminder: We also brought you Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch's reactions a little earlier.

The question now is if this resignation takes the heat off Starmerpublished at 15:39 GMT

15:39 GMT

Chris Mason
Political editor

McSweeney has long been seen as the genius of the remoulding - or rebirth, as some saw it - of the Labour Party. He had campaigned to change it into one that would be electable again. McSweeney has been largely credited with Labour's subsequent landslide victory in the last election.

There has been a lot of pressure on the former chief of staff for some time - he is somewhat of a lightning rod.

McSweeney acknowledges that he was central to Mandelson's appointment - a move which has since caused the PM the biggest crisis of his premiership.

The big question now is whether McSweeney's departure takes the heat off this political row. Or, does it remove the very lightning rod McSweeney has been and hit the PM directly?

It is worth reflecting that at the time of Mandelson's appointment, many people thought it was a good appointment, given the need for someone with savvy diplomacy in Washington following Trump's return to office. And, early evidence suggested Mandelson was doing a good job.

However, the extraordinary revelations that have emerged obviously changed the picture.

Despite Starmer's landslide majority in his election win, he has been overshadowed by turbulence in Downing Street.

It's worth reminding ourselves this is a new-ish government, but the turbulence we've seen around it is the sort of thing you'd associate with the tail end of a PM's time.

Morgan McSweeney was the PM's "closest aide", says our political correspondent Billy Kenber, and a "hugely significant figure" in the Starmer project.

He was there when Starmer became party leader, and has overseen the reshaping of the Labour Party under Starmer's leadership.

McSweeney has been central to Starmer's operationpublished at 15:22 GMT

15:22 GMT

Paul Seddon
Political reporter

Morgan McSweeney has sought to keep a low profile in public, and until relatively recently there have been relatively few pictures of him in circulation.

But he is absolutely central to the Starmer project, and the way the prime minister’s Downing Street operation works.

He began his career trying to regain control of the local party from the hard left in Lambeth, south London, and then set up a think tank opposed to the party’s leftward turn under Jeremy Corbyn.

He ran Starmer’s successful bid for the Labour leadership in 2020, and was the party’s campaign director for the 2024 general election before taking over the chief of staff role after the departure of Sue Gray.

He is thought to have been instrumental in pushing Starmer to take a tougher line on immigration and crime, as part of a strategy to broaden the party’s appeal after its crushing defeat at the 2019 election.

But his commanding position within Starmer’s Downing Street has long made him a bogeyman for backbenchers on the left of the party.

Starmer relied on McSweeney's instincts - so what now?published at 15:15 GMT

15:15 GMT

Laura Kuenssberg
Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

Prime Minister Keir Starmer "is facing into the storm as the most talented campaigner in modern politics leaves his team. He would not be PM without Morgan, I wonder if he'll be PM for much longer now", a Labour source says.

There'll be an enormous number of chats about McSweeney's exit in the next couple of days - but this really is important beyond the soap opera, for four big reasons.

For one, the PM really, really relied on McSweeney's political instincts - much, much more than Boris Johnson on Dominic Cummings, Theresa May on Gavin Barwell, or David Cameron on Edward Llewellyn.

Second, McSweeney knew how to win and was central to rebuilding Labour after the party was hammered in 2019. Third, losing a vital ally shows how deep Starmer's problems run - McSweeney was one of the PM's last plays to hold his critics at bay.

Finally, don't underestimate the disruption of changes like this, especially when the government is already struggling. Starmer's critics have a scalp, so what now?

Even the final decision for him to quit is causing turmoil.

Just before we went on air at 09:00 this morning, two sources told us that this was not the plan and nothing was changing - and senior minister Pat McFadden even said there’d be "no point" getting rid of him, on air.

Even cabinet ministers have been shocked by this afternoon’s decision and assumed, as McFadden suggested this morning, that it was not going to happen.

On Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said there was "no point... whatsoever" in getting rid of Morgan McSweeney because of the fallout from Peter Mandelson's appointment.

He told the programme: "I do think he should think he should carry on, I do think he should keep delivering.

"And I know that when it's a rough week it's easy to reach for a lever, change the leader, change the leader's chief of staff and think that will fix it."

Image source, PA Media

On social media, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said that "it's about time" for McSweeney to resign.

She has criticised Starmer, arguing that "once again with this PM it’s somebody else’s fault: 'Mandelson lied to me' or 'Morgan advised me'."

Badenoch adds that the PM needs to "take responsibility for his own terrible decisions".

Chris Mason
Political editor

"It’s been an honour working with Morgan McSweeney for many years," Prime Minister Keir Starmer says.

"He turned our party around after one of its worst ever defeats and played a central role running our election campaign. It is largely thanks to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we won a landslide majority and have the chance to change the country.

"Having worked closely with Morgan in opposition and in government, I have seen every day his commitment to the Labour Party and to our country. Our party and I owe him a debt of gratitude, and I thank him for his service."