Here is something they can’t take away from him: Morgan McSweeney is often credited for Labour’s remarkable turnaround from the abyss of the 2019 election to the astounding landslide of 2024. Few thought it could be done. The Tories did all they could to help, but it took clever strategy and ruthless tactics to pull off what no pollsters predicted in the immediate wake of Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority. But it turned out that the skills that win election campaigns are not those that run a government.
His resignation today will do little to shore up Keir Stamer’s precarious position. “Man or woman overboard!” has been the frequent cry from the decks of No 10. After just 18 months, here’s a roll call of the drowned, all from senior posts selected by Starmer with fanfare, only to make them walk the plank: Sue Gray, Steph Driver, Liz Lloyd, James Lyons, Matthew Doyle, Nin Pandit, Paul Ovenden and probably more I’ve forgotten. It’s not a good look: in a company, shareholders would ask what was wrong with their CEO.
