Latest editorial
A general view of the front door of No 10 Downing Street, central London, August 5, 2024
SIR KEIR STARMER has scrapped holiday plans amid reports that Downing Street is in the grip of a factional war between top aides.
Number 10 confirmed that the Prime Minister had cancelled his holiday and would be spending the week working at Downing Street and his country residence, Chequers in Buckinghamshire.
Ostensibly this is to avoid being spotted on a sun lounger while emergency services and the courts are working overtime dealing with the aftermath of the fascist riots and to be on hand should violence in the Middle East escalate further.
But the real reason may be the need to steady the Downing Street operation as the rift between influential chief of staff Sue Gray and political strategy chief Morgan McSweeney deepens.
According to insider reports, the formidable Ms Gray has twice moved Mr McSweeney’s desk in Downing Street to new locations further away from the Prime Minister’s own office.
Ms Gray, a former civil servant and publican who probed former PM Boris Johnson’s “partygate” scandal, is also said to have tried to block Mr McSweeney from access to secure IT systems.
A Downing Street spokeswoman declined to comment on the reports today.
Mr McSweeney has been charged with winning the next general election, not expected until 2029, for Labour.
This is despite his having run the party’s campaign this year, which lost votes even compared to the poor result in 2019, and saw Labour form a government with the lowest ever vote share secured by the winning party.
So Sir Keir is more likely to dispense with his services rather than those of Ms Gray, who is focused on running the country, if he is forced to choose between his squabbling aides.
Some in Downing Street allege that it is Ms Gray who believes she is running the country, controlling access to Sir Keir, including by preventing him from receiving security updates directly from the officials concerned rather than through her.
The PM has shown a very low tolerance threshold for dissent or for anything that looks like factionalism in his party, so he will be dismayed at the open turmoil so early in his time in office.
Britain needs ‘joined-up industrial strategy and ambitious public investment’ to end the cost of living crisis, unions says
We have finally reached the end of Labour’s claim to be the political wing of the labour movement, and the diverse left forces challenging Starmer’s pro-austerity, pro-war government deserve our open support — but what next, asks ANDREW MURRAY
