ANDREW PIERCE: Mandy’s supper membership chum who even senior ministers didn’t dare cross
Asked if Morgan McSweeney had done more than any other figure to purge the hard-Left from the current Labour Party, Peter Mandelson paused before replying. ‘I’d have to say yes. I think so highly of him,’ he said.
Mandelson was speaking in December 2024, just after Downing Street confirmed that he was to be the next ambassador to Washington, despite opposition from the security services and many Cabinet ministers.
Mandelson had reason to lavish praise on McSweeney, for he knew he owed his job to him. McSweeney had been the one who persuaded an initially reluctant Sir Keir Starmer to give Mandelson the most prestigious post in the British diplomatic service, despite his well documented links to Jeffrey Epstein.
The controversial appointment was the ultimate sign of the huge power wielded by McSweeney, 48, the most powerful unelected official in Britain and a man who even senior Cabinet ministers feared to cross.
Tough and cunning, McSweeney had arrived in Britain as a 17-year-old from his native Macroom in County Cork in Ireland, and he still speaks with a soft Irish lilt.
His grandfather, Michael McSweeney, served in the IRA during the Irish War of Independence in 1919-21, winning a medal from them for his service.
He was a restless spirit, dropping out of the London School of Economics and working for a time on building sites where he quickly found he was not cut out for such a physical job.
Morgan McSweeney (right) had been the one who persuaded an initially reluctant Sir Keir Starmer to give Mandelson the most prestigious post in the British diplomatic service, despite his well documented links to Jeffrey Epstein
He went to Middlesex University to study politics, dropped out, headed to California and then moved to Israel where he worked in a factory run by Czech Jews and acquired a work ethic.
On returning to London he joined the Labour Party, inspired by the peace brokered in Northern Ireland by the Blair government.
It was in 2001 that he went to work in Labour’s London Millbank HQ, as an intern in the build up to the general election.
His moment came when the receptionist dropped a vase on her foot. He took her place. This proved to be the 24-year-old’s first contact with Mandelson, who he greeted every day as the Labour svengali came into the building as a key figure in Blair’s second election victory.
Mandelson claims to have no recollection back then of the office junior with the Irish accent. But McSweeney neveretheless modelled his own political career on the spin doctor, the man regarded as a master strategist and backroom fixer.
After the election he became heavily involved in local politics in Lambeth in south London, where he met his wife, Imogen Walker, an actress, who was a local councillor.
The borough, once a Labour stronghold, had fallen to the Tories and LibDems after the disastrous reign of Red Ted Knight of the Militant Tendency.
It took until 2006 before McSweeney, aided by local councillor Steve Reed, who is now the Housing Secretary, brought the borough back under Labour control.
Sir Keir Starmer was won over by the softly spoken McSweeney (left) who ended up running his leadership-campaign, which he won easily. He credited McSweeney with his victory and made him chief of staff
He learnt how to fight street by street, house by house, for votes, and how to win elections, even in years when Labour was doing badly.
He did this by finding out what the voters wanted, not what the Left said the voters ought to want, and put his skills to use in Barking and Dagenham in the fight against the far-Right BNP, which had won ten seats on the local council.
Soon he was being noticed. He worked for the Labour group at the Local Government Association, but his big break came with the election of the Marxist sympathiser Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015.
A new pressure group, Labour Together, was set up to work privately to try to bring the Labour Party back under moderate control.
Rachel Reeves, the future Chancellor, was a big supporter, as was Mandelson.
McSweeney and Mandelson became members of a group called the Sunday Supper Club, which met at the Kennington home of Mandelson’s friend Lord Liddle, who worked in Downing Street in Blair’s first term.
Over dinner they all plotted the demise of the Corbyn project.
So where does Keir Starmer fit into the picture? In 2019, while he was fighting in public to make Corbyn Britain’s prime minister, Starmer spent Monday mornings with trusted aides planning for life after the next election, which he knew they would lose heavily.
The furtive group met in secret at the home of Jenny Chapman then a Labour MP. One morning, to the surprise of his close-knit clique of aides, the Irishman turned up.
Starmer’s friends were instinctively suspicious. But Starmer was won over by the softly spoken McSweeney, who ended up running his leadership-campaign, which he won easily. He credited McSweeney with his victory and made him chief of staff.
Mc Sweeney ensured a rapid promotion for his wife, Imogen Walker, who was elected the Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley in the last election. She was made parliamentary private secretary to the Chancellor, which ensured he had his own eyes and ears in the Treasury
And yet the first two years of Starmer’s leadership in Opposition were a disaster.
When Labour lost the Hartlepool by-election in 2021, Starmer sacked McSweeney, moving him to a different role in charge of campaigning.
Which is how McSweeney came to run the general election campaign, delivering Labour its biggest landslide since Blair in 2001. Starmer again credited McSweeney with his victory.
With Mandelson still very much involved, he mapped out the make-up of the first Starmer Cabinet and effectively became the all-powerful, unofficial deputy prime minister, wielding far more clout than the hapless Angela Rayner who had the title in name only.
Even Chancellor Rachel Reeves deferred to him. The phrase ‘What does Morgan think’ dominated behind the scenes at Number 10.
He swiftly saw off the former senior civil servant Sue Gray, who survived only three months as chief of staff, and took her job.
He ensured a rapid promotion for his wife, who was elected the Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley in the last election. She was made parliamentary private secretary to the Chancellor, which ensured he had his own eyes and ears in the Treasury.
Mandelson spoke at Party fundraisers for his wife, underlining the strong personal bond between the two men.
Urged on by Mandelson, he purged the Corbynites, excluded his followers from parliamentary selections, and rewrote the party’s rulebook to make sure the hard-Left were excluded from any future leadership contest.
It was McSweeney who ensured they sang the national anthem at the Labour Party conference, and embraced the Union flag.
Pointedly, McSweeney, who eschews publicity, was photographed sitting near Starmer when he met Trump at the White House in February last year. He was grinning from ear to ear having persuaded Starmer to make Mandelson the ambassador – which was to prove a terminal mistake.
