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THE CORK MAN described as the “guru” behind Labour’s landslide campaign in July is to become UK Labour’s new chief of staff after the resignation of Sue Gray.
Gray yesterday quit as Downing Street chief of staff because of fears she was “becoming a distraction” to Keir Starmer’s Government and will become envoy for the regions and nations.
She will be replaced as chief of staff by Macroom native Morgan McSweeney, who she is reported to have clashed with.
One Labour Cabinet Minister is said to have told The Guardian newspaper several weeks ago: “One or both of them will have to go. It’s not going to be Morgan.”
The Guardian also reports that Gray was said to have been “blind-sided” by the decision to give McSweeney her job, and that only found out shortly before it was announced.
The Times of London meanwhile said that Gray “lost the No 10 power battle with McSweeney”.
McSweeney left Ireland for England as a teenager and initially was working on building sites.
He gained a junior role in Labour in 2001 and has since gone through the ranks in the party to become one of Starmer’s closest aides and his campaign director.
In a profile in The Guardian, McSweeney was labelled “Labour’s elections guru” who has “near-unrivalled influence”.
He is also credited by many for taking Labour to its emphatic electoral landslide victory in July and handing Starmer the keys to 10 Downing Street.
McSweeney’s wife Imogen Walker also had a big win in the UK General Election in July, as was voted in comfortably with 49.9% of the vote in Hamilton and Clyde Valley in Scotland.
The Guardian remarked that this victory made the two a “formidable power couple” within Labour.
McSweeney currently lives in Lanark, a town to the south of Glasgow, and commutes to work in Labour’s headquarters in Southward, an inner London borough.
Following the landslide July win, a Labour source said: “Morgan has that Tony Blair-like ability to sense what the average voter wants from the Labour party.”
But while he has been hailed as Labour’s election guru by many, some see McSweeney as an enemy to the Labour left.
He has been accused of removing every supporter of former leader Jeremy Corbyn from positions within the party.
Gray made headlines in December 2021 when she took on the civil service investigation into allegations of Covid-rule-breaking events in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.
In May 2022, the report into ‘partygate’ detailed events at which officials drank so much they were sick, sang karaoke, became involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family.
Gray was then out of the news until March 2023, when reports surfaced that she was to take up the role as Starmer’s chief of staff when she resigned from the civil service with immediate effect.
Since Labour won the election in July, there have been a series of briefings against Gray, including the leaking of information about her salary to the BBC last month.
The broadcaster reported that Gray was being paid £3,000 (€3,500) more than the Prime Minister, after a post-election pay rise.
Gray will shift to a new role as envoy for the regions and nations, after acknowledging that the “intense commentary around my position risked becoming a distraction to the Government’s vital work of change”.
There are two new deputy chiefs of staff in Vidhya Alakeson, the political director at Number 10, and Jill Cuthbertson, who has been director of government relations in Downing Street since their election win in July.
And after weeks of briefings about reported splits in Number 10, former journalist James Lyons will be in charge of a new strategic communications team, joining Downing Street from TikTok.
Nin Pandit, who previously ran the Downing Street policy unit, has been appointed principal private secretary to Starmer, a senior civil service position.
The news of Gray’s departure as chief of staff sparked claims of “chaos” from the Conservatives.
A party spokesperson said: “In fewer than 100 days, Starmer’s Labour Government has been thrown into chaos, he has lost his chief of staff who has been at the centre of the scandal the Labour Party has been engulfed by”.
Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick described the UK Government as being in “free fall”, while fellow contender James Cleverly said Labour’s “first 100 days have been a disaster, and their civil war continues with the loss of Sue Gray”.
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We have the other extreme here. Damned if do. Damned if you don’t. The fact is heroin destroys families. They should of thought of that when selling the horrible stuff.
You’ll find that the majority, if not all, these inmates have come from broken homes and deprived communities where they sold drugs to survive. It’s nasty and yes they were part of the cycle that they themselves were trapped in but Obama is acknowledging that solution involve them; much in the same way Mo Molam knew the peace process in NI had to involve inmates in British prisons.
Why is Obama doing this at the end of his term instead of at the beginning? The US prison population stands at over 2million. That’s more than China has incarcerated. It’s almost 2.5 times more than Russia has in prison.
the vast majority of prisons in the US are privately owned, run foe profit and care more about the bottom line than society. barry is an actor..reading off a script and being told what to do, as badly as drugs have messed up parts of society unpunished white collar crime and the burden it has put on society has damaged it a lot more.
in america there is a prison industrial complex,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thats the problem.
here there are yobos with 17 previous convictions walking free and committing more serious crimes because the justice system is far to lenient on them. the legal system does not mind, its a big cash cow for them.
Obama is a good actor and that’s all. It is well established fact that since he took office his administration has refused more freedom of information requests than other other administration in US history. And if he gave two shits about ‘non-violent crimes’ then he’d have long arranged for Snowden to come home and would have intervened in the Bradley Manning case as he could have done at any time.
He’s a liar, and has done nothing but further liberalise US laws (which is why most of these guys are in prison in the first place).
Hilary Clinton is far worse than he and if she makes it in it’s bye bye US.
OK idiot. Restored pride to US after years of Bush’s wrath. A true statesman. Agree with you about Hillary though. I hope Sanders wins
Try making a point like an adult and I might respond to you. Other than that. Take a hike.
you just replied to him.
My heart is bleeding purple piss reading the sob stories.
If anything our Judiciary here could learn a thing or two from US Judges about sentencing and the whole US legal system.
Instead of having Solicitors and Barristers they have just one set Lawyers who deal with your case from start to finish. Where there is a dedicated Prosecution Service staffed by full time Prosecution Lawyers and a dedicated Public Defenders Office staffed with full time Defence Lawyers for those that would normally get free legal aid here. And then Private Legal Firms for those that can afford them.
Yes because there is so little crime in the US compared to Ireland.
Funny how you, a prison officer, propose following almost every part of the US save the mass privatization of prisons, wonder why that could be, oh right, self interest.
Wari.
Simply because Privatised Prisons have been shown time and time again to be an utter disaster in terms of security and staff safety. One only has to look at our nearest neighbour to see just how much of a bad idea they are and why the rest of Europe are not following suit. In reality they actually cost the state more than those under Government control in the long term.
I’m all for criminals doing time for their crimes especially violent or sexual crime but some of the sentences for carrying a small amount of drugs are ridiculous. Check out the segment John Oliver did on it, it’s a real eye opener. When I think of the idiot I was as a teenager, I would hate to go to jail for 15 years because of being on idiot.
I didn’t deal drugs! lol
If the sale of illegal substances was legalised and regulated then a lot of these places would see a massive reduction in crime as the people relying on the drug trade to make a living would be forced into tax-paying, gainful employment as they could not compete with a well regulated, safe industry. Also, not only would we gain the tax from the legal sale of drugs, it would be much easier to ensure the quality and safety of such substances as they could be tested in proper labs before being passed onto the public. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the head in the sand approach just doesn’t work. As long as there is a clear demand for drugs, there will always be people willing to risk everything to meet that demand for massive tax free profits.
In fact the Americans have the right idea here. Conspiracy to distribute heroin is no small crime. In my opinion 15 years is entirely appropriate. Crime must be punished harshly or we are all doomed.
They should do more about guns than 1000 year prison terms
How about maybe not dealing heroin. Heroin is a violent drug as is most other drugs. And yes that includes Weed. So just because the initial deal was violent… what we should let them away. The Americans have the right way. Full length senences for federal offences. If we could adopt there legal court room system this country would be a hell of a lot better off.
Please pardon me, i just have to share my testimony on how i was CURED OF HIV with the help of Dr.Boadi’s Herbal Medicine.
Finding out you have HIV can be an incredibly shattering experience. And I think the reason for this is everyone is under the false assumption that the virus is not curable. Well, i totally disagree with this. I was diagnosed of HIV disease for the past 3 years, with the curiosity and search for a cure i came across a blog and i saw lot of testimony post from people making a reference to DOCTOR BOADI ABIODUN how he used his natural herbal medicine to cure them of their diseases Some testimonies was centered on;
*HIV (with a very low cd4 count)
*HEPATITIS B
*HERPES,
*ASTHMA,
*EPILEPSY,
*CANCER,
*INFERTILITY
*STAPHYLOCOCCUS…
I decided to give it a trial, though i never believed in herbal medicine but i was in a way convinced with the sort of amazing testimonies i saw online i decided to contact him, with the response he gave, He promised to prepare and send the “TATAHWE” Medicine to me. It was not up to a week after i placed an order, I got the medicine and he instructed me to drink the medicine for two weeks ( only evenings before bed) after which, I should go back to the hospital for a Re-Test. I followed his instructions and i discovered that my urine became yellowish for good two weeks so immediately i finished the medicine i went for the test the following week, it was very surprising i tested negative. I can’t thank dr Boadi enough, so I decided to promote him because he cured me from my disease, there’s no disease he can’t cure with his medicine. Please also spread the good news to others so that those with same illness can be cured.
you can relate with Dr Boadi on:
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thanks for your audience and i hope you find help like i did.
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