British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s most senior aide, Morgan McSweeney, has announced his resignation as chief of staff over the appointment of Jeffrey Epstein-linked Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.
Falling on his sword in an apparent attempt to save the skin of his erstwhile boss, McSweeney said on Sunday that he takes “full responsibility” for advising the Prime Minister to appoint Lord Mandelson to the top diplomatic posting last year, despite Downing Street and Starmer hismelf being aware that the veteran political operative had continued his close relationship with the pedophile financier even after Epstein served prison time for child prostitution offences.
In a statement, McSweeney said, “In his statement, Morgan McSweeney said per the Times of London: “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.
“When asked, I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
“This has not been an easy decision… I have worked every day to elect and support a government that puts the lives of ordinary people first and leads us to a better future for our great country. Only a Labour government will do that.
“I leave with pride in all we have achieved mixed with regret at the circumstances of my departure. But I have always believed there are moments when you must accept your responsibility and step aside for the bigger cause we must remember the women and girls whose lives were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein and whose voices went unheard for far too long. Secondly, while I did not oversee the due diligence and vetting process, I believe that process must now be fundamentally overhauled.”
McSweeney’s resignation comes amid rampant speculation in Westminster over the political future of Prime Minister Starmer, who was already facing the prospect of challenges to his leadership of the governing left-wing Labour Party amid his cratering poll numbers over failures to turn around the economy and to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
Starmer has attempted to rally the troops of his backbenches by warning that if he is ousted, the party will ultimately fall to Nigel Farage’s insurgent Reform UK party, which has soared to the top of the polls over the past year as the public quickly soured on the Labour government.
The resignation of McSweeney leaves Starmer with desperately few friends in Downing Street, with prominent figures such as his former deputy Angela Rayner and his current deputy David Lammy both briefing in the press against their boss, proclaiming that they had advised against the appointment of Mandelson as U.S. ambassador.
McSweeney played a critical role in Starmer’s rise to power last year, having in large part orchestrated the take down of former far-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn — who was ultimately kicked out of the party altogether last year — and the return of the party to the ‘New Labour’ structure of former PM Tony Blair.
Part of McSweeney’s efforts to depose Corbyn came in the form of censorship campaigns launched by his “think tank” Labour Together, and its offshoot organisations Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN) and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
After successfully diminishing his rivals on the far-left of the Labour Party, the censorship apartus created by McSweeny was then used censor and deplatform conservative news outlets in the United States, including Breitbart News.
The head of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate and longtime McSweeney ally, Imran Ahmed, was among five British and European citizens sanctioned in December by the Trump administration for their role in leading “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”
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