SUE Gray resigned as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff on Sunday after a war between senior factions at the heart of government.
The top civil servant lost in a battle for supremacy against Morgan McSweeney, with whom she was reported to have clashed.
Keir Starmer’s top adviser and right-hand man will replace her in the top job, not long after masterminding Labour’s return to power.
But who is Morgan McSweeney?
Born in Macroom, County Cork, Irishman McSweeney joined Labour under Tony Blair in the New Labour years – working in a junior role at the party’s attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank.
He was then hired by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn – known for famously saying “PFI or bust” in support of the controversial policy – in a key 2005 election role.
After Labour’s defeat in the 2010 election, McSweeney then led the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association.
He also ran Blairite Liz Kendall's failed bid to become Labour leader in 2015, which Jeremy Corbyn won.
In 2017, McSweeney became a director of the think tank Labour Together – which has been instrumental in the rise of Keir Starmer and purging the party of the left wing.
This included backing Keir Starmer – both resource and monetary-wise – during the 2020 leadership contest.
The group was also previously fined and found guilty of breaches in electoral law for failing to declare £730,000 in donations between 2017 and 2020.
McSweeney stepped down from his director in 2020 but has since risen to be perhaps the most influential non-elected figure in British politics as a trusted aide to Starmer (below) and the head of the party’s successful General Election campaign.
After Labour's victory, McSweeney was appointed the head of political strategy alongside Paul Ovenden.
But according to several newspaper sources, tensions between Gray and McSweeney ultimately contributed to her losing the top job on Sunday.
McSweeney was then swiftly appointed as Downing Street chief of staff, with Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson his deputies.
He is married to Imogen Walker, the new Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley.
