THE CORK MAN described as the “guru” behind Labour’s landslide campaign scored a double election win last night, as his wife was also elected a Labour MP in Scotland.
Macroom native Morgan McSweeney left Ireland for England as a teenager and initially was working on building sites.
McSweeney gained a junior role in Labour in 2001 and has since gone through the ranks in the party to become one of Keir Starmer’s closest aides and his campaign director.
In a profile in The Guardian, McSweeney is 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 and handing Starmer the keys to 10 Downing Street.
His father Tim McSweeney spoke to Cork’s 96fm Opinion Line with PJ Coogan this morning and said he never thought in his “wildest dreams” that his son would be in this position.
Tim said Morgan “grew up in the atmosphere” of politics and that it’s “in his genes” and added that he was “delighted” his son joined Labour in the UK as opposed to the Conservatives .
“Myt father would turn in his grave if Morgan joined the Tories,” said Tim.
Tim noted that he was also looking out for the results of Hamilton and Clyde Valley in Scotland last night, where his daughter-in-law and Morgan’s wife Imogen Walker was a candidate for the Labour party.
Walker was voted in comfortably with 49.9% of the vote and The Guardian remarked that this victory will make the two a “formidable power couple” within Labour.
Tim also said that former Labour prime minister Tony Blair “recognised Morgan as being somebody for the future” but remarked that he “works in the background” and wouldn’t consider standing for election.
He also remarked that Starmer will be a friend of Ireland and that “there is an Irish influence within Labour”.
“Many of the candidates elected this time for Labour are second-generation Irish people,” said Tim.
“There would be a very strong (Irish) influence and it would be for the good.”
Tim added that a potential tour of Downing Street is on the backburner for the time being and that his “immediate thoughts are with Cork to beat Limerick on Sunday” in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final.
His aunt Evelyn McSweeney also spoke to the Opinion Line with PJ Coogan and noted that Morgan comes from a Fine Gael family and that his father is very involved in canvassing for the party.
“His grandfather canvassed with (Cork North West TD) Michael Creed’s grandfather out on the bike, so that’s how far back we started getting involved in politics,” said Evelyn.
She also noted that her daughter, Clare Mungovan, is an advisor to Taoiseach Simon Harris, while Evelyn herself was a councillor for 20 years in Macroom.
Evelyn said it was a great honour for the family to have Morgan in this role and that she hopes he will find himself in a job within 10 Downing Street.
Morgan 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.
Evelyn said she hopes the family will be taken on a tour of Downing Street but remarked that the “House of Commons would be good as well”.
While he has been hailed as Labour’s election guru by many, some see Morgan 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.
Meanwhile, one Labour source told The Guardian that work for the next campaign begins now.
“This is a guy that grew up in the Republic but has an intuitive sense of what ordinary British voters feel that is quite rare for people in politics,” said a Labour source.
“Tony Blair had that himself, he didn’t need someone to advise him on that.
“Morgan has that Blair-like ability to sense what the average voter wants from the Labour party.”
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