THE CORK MAN described as the “guru” behind Labour’s landslide campaign in July is to become UK Labour’s new chief of staff after the resignation of Sue Gray.

Gray yesterday quit as Downing Street chief of staff because of fears she was “becoming a distraction” to Keir Starmer’s Government and will become envoy for the regions and nations.

She will be replaced as chief of staff by Macroom native Morgan McSweeney, who she is reported to have clashed with.

One Labour Cabinet Minister is said to have told The Guardian newspaper several weeks ago: “One or both of them will have to go. It’s not going to be Morgan.”

The Guardian also reports that Gray was said to have been “blind-sided” by the decision to give McSweeney her job, and that only found out shortly before it was announced.

The Times of London meanwhile said that Gray “lost the No 10 power battle with McSweeney”.

McSweeney left Ireland for England as a teenager and initially was working on building sites.

He gained a junior role in Labour in 2001 and has since gone through the ranks in the party to become one of Starmer’s closest aides and his campaign director.

In a profile in The Guardian, McSweeney was labelled “Labour’s elections guru” who has “near-unrivalled influence”.

He is also credited by many for taking Labour to its emphatic electoral landslide victory in July and handing Starmer the keys to 10 Downing Street.

Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive in Downing Street and greet supporters in London after becoming British prime minister.

McSweeney’s wife Imogen Walker also had a big win in the UK General Election in July, as was voted in comfortably with 49.9% of the vote in Hamilton and Clyde Valley in Scotland.

The Guardian remarked that this victory made the two a “formidable power couple” within Labour.

McSweeney currently lives in Lanark, a town to the south of Glasgow, and commutes to work in Labour’s headquarters in Southward, an inner London borough.

Following the landslide July win, a Labour source said: “Morgan has that Tony Blair-like ability to sense what the average voter wants from the Labour party.”

But while he has been hailed as Labour’s election guru by many, some see McSweeney as an enemy to the Labour left.

He has been accused of removing every supporter of former leader Jeremy Corbyn from positions within the party.

From partygate to salary scandal

Gray made headlines in December 2021 when she took on the civil service investigation into allegations of Covid-rule-breaking events in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.

In May 2022, the report into ‘partygate’ detailed events at which officials drank so much they were sick, sang karaoke, became involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family.

File image of Sue Gray pictured with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Gray was then out of the news until March 2023, when reports surfaced that she was to take up the role as Starmer’s chief of staff when she resigned from the civil service with immediate effect.

Since Labour won the election in July, there have been a series of briefings against Gray, including the leaking of information about her salary to the BBC last month.

The broadcaster reported that Gray was being paid £3,000 (€3,500) more than the Prime Minister, after a post-election pay rise.

Changes

Gray will shift to a new role as envoy for the regions and nations, after acknowledging that the “intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the Government’s vital work of change”.

There are two new deputy chiefs of staff in Vidhya Alakeson, the political director at Number 10, and Jill Cuthbertson, who has been director of government relations in Downing Street since their election win in July.

And after weeks of briefings about reported splits in Number 10, former journalist James Lyons will be in charge of a new strategic communications team, joining Downing Street from TikTok.

Nin Pandit, who previously ran the Downing Street policy unit, has been appointed principal private secretary to Starmer, a senior civil service position.

The news of Gray’s departure as chief of staff sparked claims of “chaos” from the Conservatives.

A party spokesperson said: “In fewer than 100 days, Starmer’s Labour Government has been thrown into chaos, he has lost his chief of staff who has been at the centre of the scandal the Labour Party has been engulfed by”.

Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick described the UK Government as being in “free fall”, while fellow contender James Cleverly said Labour’s “first 100 days have been a disaster, and their civil war continues with the loss of Sue Gray”.