Starmer-Mandelson latest: Morgan McSweeney resigns as PM’s chief of staff over US ambassador scandal

A defiant Keir Starmer is going to try to put himself front and centre of his beleaguered government’s fightback next week as calls grow for him to resign over the Mandelson scandal.

Downing Street has confirmed that the prime minister will be “out and about making the case for why [his Labour] government is delivering for working people” around the country next week as the fury over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US escalates.

The Independent Political Editor David Maddox reports:

Morgan McSweeney was the prime minister’s chief of staff from October 2024 till his resignation today on 8 February 2026.

Mr McSweeney, was viewed as an ally of the disgraced peer, Lord Mandelson, and was considered the driving force behind his appointment as US ambassador, despite knowing that his ties with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Starmer’s right-hand man was responsible for strategy and central to decision-making at the heart of Government.

Consequently, some have blamed him for Downing Street’s failed attempt to control the release of potentially embarassing documents providing insight into how the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson was made.

McSweeney joined the Labour Party in 1997, reportedly inspired by the backing for the Good Friday Agreement which was key to the Northern Ireland peace process. In June 2001, he was hired as a Labour conference administrator, according to his Linkedin profile.

He later took a job in Labour’s “attack and rebuttal unit” in the party’s Millbank headquarters reports suggest, where he is said to have been tasked with adding information to Peter Mandelson’s “excalibur” database which informed campaign messaging.

After failing in a bid to become a councillor in Sutton in 2006, he was appointed head of Steeve Reed’s leader’s office in Southwark, a role he held until October 2007.

Mr McSweeney was appointed director of the Labour Together think tank in 2017, sharing a place on the board with Mr Reed and current Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

Mr McSweeney was appointed to run Sir Keir’s successful 2020 leadership campaign and initially rose the ranks to become his chief of staff.

James Lyons, a former director of communications to Keir Starmer who worked with Morgan McSweeney, has questioned the timing of McSweeney’s resignation this afternoon.

"I don't think we've actually been told yet who's going to replace Morgan as chief of staff, which again, I find unusual," James Lyons told Sky News’ presenter Barbara Serra.

"If this was a planned announcement, you would have wanted it as tidily as possible."

"I've been saying for some time that I couldn't see how the prime minister's position would be improved by Morgan's departure, but it can be true that him remaining could have made matters worse."

Labour MP Brian Leishman has called for Sir Keir Starmer to consider following Morgan McSweeney out the door.

The Alloa and Grangemouth MP told the Press Association: “Morgan McSweeney’s resignation as chief of staff to the Prime Minister is in the best interests of the Government. He was at the heart of the political misjudgements and errors that have been made since winning the general election.

“It is also in the best interests of the Labour Party as he was instrumental in the lack of internal democracy and the culture of intense factionalism we are suffering from.

“There must be a change in political direction and that comes from the very top, so the Prime Minister must look at his own position and question whether he should follow McSweeney’s lead one last time, and resign for the good of the country and the Labour Party.”

A Cabinet minister has urged Lord Peter Mandelson to return the payoff he received after being dismissed as ambassador to the US, or donate the sum to charity, following fresh revelations about his relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The peer’s sacking was initially linked to his ties with Epstein, but new documents have intensified the controversy, indicating he leaked market-sensitive information to his associate while serving as a government minister.

Read more:

Cabinet minister, Pat McFadden suggested he did not discuss Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment with Sir Keir Starmer. He added that colleagues who let it be known they warned the Prime Minister against it “have to answer for themselves”.

Mr McFadden was Lord Mandelson’s deputy when, as business secretary, the disgraced peer was leaking confidential government information about the response to the global financial crisis to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

“I don’t believe I discussed this with the Prime Minister,” the Cabinet minister told Sky News, but acknowledged the possibility that the government documents soon to be released about the appointment may highlight evidence proving the contrary.

“You don’t remember every piece of paper you saw, but I do not believe discussing this appointment with the Prime Minister.”

Allies of Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy and Angela Rayner, who are seen to be possible successors to Sir Keir, suggested they had not been in favour of giving Lord Mandelson the top Washington job.

“It’s up to them,” Mr McFadden said when asked about their interventions.

“They’re over 21, you know, they’ll have to answer for themselves on what they’re saying.”

Morgan McSweeney has resigned as the Keir Starmer’s Downing Street chief of staff over his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

Mr McSweeney pushed for Lord Mandelson to be appointed as the ambassador to the US and his position became increasingly untenable as pressure on Starmer mounted over the scandal, which followed the release of emails underlining the extent of Mandelson’s links with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Read more:

Labour MP John Slinger has backed the prime minister over the Mandelson row and rejected calls for him to follow Morgan McSweeney out of the door.

In a statement posted to X, the Rugby MP said: “I have been speaking publicly about how Labour should rally behind the Prime Minister, how we don’t ditch a leader just because the going gets tough, and how it’s in the national interest for Keir Starmer to stay as Prime Minister.

“Since I’ve done that, I have been approached in the street by constituents telling me they heard me on the radio and totally agree. I have had CEOs of companies message me to say they agree.

“And I have had people from all around the country, whether Labour or not, saying they think the last thing the country needs is leadership speculations and that we should support the Prime Minister.”

Previously, the Labour MP has used the emergency parliamentary debate to defend the process behind Lord Mandelson’s appointment, arguing it is no different to past failures made in the vetting of senior staff.

Green party leader, Zack Polanski has once again called for Starmer to leave his role as prime minister

Mr Polanski has reacted to Morgan McSweeney’s resignation as “necessary but not sufficient”.

Previously Mr Polanski has stated that the Prime Minister's decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US demonstrated a "catastrophic level of misjudgment" and necessitates his departure.

Mr Polanski told the Press Association: "I think the Peter Mandelson scandal actually is bad for democracy in general. I think it erodes trust in politicians."

Everyone involved in the decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador must face consequences, Labour pressure group Mainstream has said.

The centre-left grouping, which is supported by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham – long seen as a potential leadership rival to Sir Keir Starmer, said: “All those involved in the disastrous appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US must be held to account, and it is right that personnel in Number 10 most supportive of Mandelson face consequences.

“We now need to tear out the regressive politics of elite privilege and toxic factionalism that enabled this scandal – and which will only produce more – root and branch.”