KEIR STARMER’S CHIEF of staff, Cork native Morgan McSweeney, is the highest paid UK Government special adviser, new figures have indicated.

Macroom native McSweeney is paid between £155,000 and £159,999 (€179,000 and €185,000), according to data released by the Cabinet Office today.

The UK media hailed McSweeney as the man behind Labour’s emphatic electoral landslide victory last summer.

In a profile in The Guardian, McSweeney was labelled “Labour’s elections guru” who has “near-unrivalled influence”.

But while he has been hailed as Labour’s election guru by many, some see Morgan as an enemy to the Labour left.

He has been accused in the past of removing every supporter of former leader Jeremy Corbyn from positions within the party.

He became the chief of staff of British Prime Minister Starmer in October after the resignation of Sue Gray.

File image of Sue Gray pictured with Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

It was reported at the time that McSweeney had clashed with Gray.

Gray was said to have been “blind-sided” by the decision to give McSweeney her job, and it was reported that she only found out shortly before it was announced.

Gray first 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.

In recent weeks, McSweeney has garnered criticism from the left of the Labour party over proposed cuts to social welfare payments, which were largely rolled back.

McSweeney has emerged as a primary target for Labour “rebels” and those MPs have been pointing to McSweeney as the main influence behind Starmer’s austerity measures and rightward shift more generally.

Elsewhere, a raft of other senior Number 10 advisers, also known as spads, occupy the next highest pay rung on salaries between £145,000 and £149,999 (€167,800 and €173,600), as well as Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s top economic adviser.

Overall the pay bill for spads in the 2024/25 was £16.7 million (€19.3m), but this included £3.1 million (€3.6m) in severance costs, which would have covered outgoing advisers from the previous Conservative government.

The salary bill was £9.5 million (€11m), lower than the £10 million (€11.6m) spent in the previous year.

According to the UK Government’s release, as of 31 March there were 130 special advisers across the Government.

Salaries over £76,000 (€87,900) are declared in bands of £5,000 (€5,800).

McSweeney was the only person in the £155,000 to £159,999 band.

-With additional reporting from Press Association