CORKMAN MORGAN MCSWEENEY’S political epitaph has been written several times since he became UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff but he has never looked closer than now to becoming a sacrificial lamb for his boss. 

McSweeney was credited as being Starmer’s tactician ahead of the 2024 election which returned Labour to power with a landslide victory.

But various crises that Starmer has faced since then have ratcheted the pressure on him to dispense with McSweeney, something that he has repeatedly said he would not countenance. 

McSweeney has emerged as a primary target for Labour “rebels”, who claim he was the main influence behind decisions such as proposed cuts to social welfare payments that Starmer was forced to perform a u-turn on. 

McSweeney was also blamed for an overly-aggressive Downing Street response to a putative challenge to Starmer’s leadership last November that caused further instability in the government. 

On that occasion, Starmer had thrown his weight behind McSweeney, saying that he “of course” retained full confidence in his right-hand man. 

This loyalty is set to be tested further now due to the Peter Mandelson-shaped crisis that Starmer is now engulfed in.

The fallout from the Epstein files and revelations about ongoing contact between Mandelson and paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has led to the biggest political crisis for Starmer since he became PM. 

Starmer appointed Mandelson as his Ambassador to the US in February 2025 in a bid to use the longtime Labour operator as his Washington-based Trump whisperer.

This decision was said to be backed and even championed by McSweeney.  

The move spectacularly backfired as Mandelson was sacked from the role seven months later following the release of the first tranche of Epstein files. 

This wasn’t the end of the matter, with the latest release of Epstein files leading to a police probe into Mandelson’s conduct while he was a Labour minister some 17 years ago. 

Evidence of the Epstein-Mandelson relationship has forced the Met Police into looking at whether Mandelson passed confidential government information to Epstein while Gordon Brown was UK prime minister. 

Yesterday, the scandal took on a completely different level of seriousness for Starmer when he was forced to admit in the House of Commons that prior to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador, Starmer had been made aware that there was contact between Mandelson and Epstein following Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. 

The moment Starmer admitted this during Prime Minister’s questions yesterday caused audible gasps in parliament but Starmer sought to dampen his culpability by saying that Mandelson had “lied repeatedly” about the extent of the relationship.

Among Starmer’s own MPs, there was anger about Downing Street’s attempt to control the release of potentially explosive documents providing insight into how the decision was made.

In the face of a mutiny from Labour MPs – led by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner – Starmer’s government backed down and ceded control to a parliamentary committee to decide what could be released into the public domain.

Questions over Starmer’s continued leadership of the party are being discussed, but in a more immediate way backbench pressure is being publicly heaped on McSweeney.

Labour MP Karl Turner told Times Radio today that Starmer essentially has to choose between his own job or McSweeney’s. 

“If the Prime Minister decides that he has to be surrounded by advisors who give him shoddy advice, I think that the reality of that will end in the prime minister having to be making a decision about his future at some point soon,” Turner said. 

If McSweeney continues in No 10 Downing Street, I think the PM is up against it in a way that he doesn’t need to be. 

One Labour MP told the Press Association that WhatsApp chats among backbenchers that are usually animated have gone “eerily quiet”, and that the mood is “sombre” and suggested this could signal plotting behind the scenes.

They said McSweeney has “got to go” and they were “really disappointed” that he has not already been sacked.

Reform’s leader Nigel Farage has also targeted McSweeney, saying that he expected Starmer’s chief of staff to be “gone pretty quickly”. “

“I don’t know how long Starmer will last as PM. Indeed, I’m very worried about it. I want him to stay forever,” Farage said today. 

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has tabled a motion to release documents relating to the appointment of Mandelson that would include emails between Mandelson and McSweeney. 

“We know that there will be a cover-up because this implicates the Prime Minister and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, a protégé of Peter Mandelson,” Badenoch said yesterday. 

She added: “The Prime Minister chose to inject Mandelson’s poison into the heart of his government on the advice of Morgan McSweeney.”

Starmer’s own team have sought to stem the calls for a head to roll, with Labour Housing Secretary Steve Reed today insisting that both Starmer and McSweeney are safe. 

Asked whether Starmer’s position is secure, he told BBC Breakfast: “Of course it is.”

On Sky News, he was pressed on whether McSweeney is safe in his role, responding: “Yes, of course he is.”

- With reporting by Press Association