Morgan McSweeney

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Morgan McSweeney
Director of Campaigns to the Leader of the Opposition
Assumed office
September 2022 (2022-09)
LeaderKeir Starmer
Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition
In office
4 April 2020 (2020-04-04) – 20 June 2021 (2021-06-20)
LeaderKeir Starmer
Succeeded bySam White
Personal details
BornApril 1977 (age 46–47)
Macroom, Republic of Ireland
Political partyLabour
Alma materMiddlesex University

Morgan James McSweeney (born April 1977)[1] is the campaign manager for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom and former director of the think tank Labour Together.

In September 2023, New Statesman ranked McSweeney third on a list of the most influential left-wing figures in the UK and described him as Starmer's "most trusted aide".[2] The Times stated in October 2023 that "nobody without elected office wields as much power in British politics as McSweeney,"[3] and The Guardian has described him as "the most influential backroom operator in the party."[4]

Early life and education[edit]

McSweeney grew up in Macroom in County Cork, Ireland.[3] Tim McSweeney, his father, was/is senior partner of an accounting firm as well as a mascot of the Macroom GAA sports club and football team, and his mother, Carmel McSweeney, was a bridge player. His aunt was a councillor for Fine Gael and his first cousin, Clare Mungovan, was special adviser to the Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar as of October 2023.[3][5] McSweeney played hurling as a child.[3]

He migrated to London in 1994 aged 17, initially working on building sites and later attempting university, though dropped out within 12 months.[6][3] He tried a second time at age 21, studying marketing and politics at Middlesex University.[3][6][5]

Political career[edit]

In 1997, motivated by backing for the Good Friday Agreement, McSweeney joined the Labour Party, and in 2001 he was hired to work as an intern receptionist and in the party's attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank where he input data into Peter Mandelson’s “Excalibur” database.[5][3] Alan Milburn dispatched McSweeney to marginal seats to campaign for Labour in the 2005 general election.[6]

He then moved on to campaign for Steve Reed for the 2006 Lambeth London Borough Council election,[5] working to take control of the council from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, gaining a reputation as a "formidable organiser," according to The Guardian.[7][3] Labour succeeded in the election, gaining the council from a previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.[6] McSweeney simultaneously ran as a council candidate in the 2006 Sutton London Borough Council election, which he lost with 149 votes.[5] He then worked as chief of staff for Reed in Lambeth Council.[7]

From 2008 until 2010, he campaigned with Evans, Jon Cruddas, Margaret Hodge and Hope not Hate against the British National Party in Barking and Dagenham, focusing on patriotism and crime as campaign points. This campaign succeeded in the 2010 general election, when Labour defeated the BNP in the borough. Cruddas later referred to McSweeney as "the real unsung hero of the whole thing".[5][6] Following Labour's national defeat in the 2010 general election, he became head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association.[6]

In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election in September, McSweeney ran the leadership campaign of Liz Kendall who came fourth with 4.5% of the vote.[7][5] He then spent another period in local government.[5]

Director of Labour Together[edit]

McSweeney became director of the think tank group Labour Together in 2017, reporting to a board that included Reed, Lisa Nandy, Jon Cruddas and Trevor Chinn, and also serving as company secretary.[5] During McSweeney's time at Labour Together, the group worked to poll Labour membership to determine a potential replacement of then leader Jeremy Corbyn.[7] McSweeney found that it would be possible to peel away the soft left, younger "idealists" of Labour from Corbyn's support base, eventually picking Keir Starmer to do so.[5][7][3] He composed a three-year plan for Starmer to become Prime Minister after taking control of the party, which involved first performing "immediate CPR" to reform the party's ranks (which included removing supporters of Corbyn and Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard and excluding them from future leadership contests), then secondly becoming an effective opposition in parliament by directly attacking the Conservatives on their failures, and lastly winning power by outwitting the Conservatives on crime, defence and the economy.[6][3] He was then recruited to run Starmer's 2020 campaign for Labour leader, which Starmer won.[6] McSweeney also set up the Center for Countering Digital Hate during this time, initially designed to target online antisemitism.[6]

McSweeney fundraised for Labour Together during his role as company secretary, though stopped reporting the large majority of donations the group received from December 2017 onward, eventually failing to report more than £730,000 in funds within the 30 days required by law during his tenure. The undeclared donations as well as additional incorrect information declared by McSweeney were investigated by the Electoral Commission; Labour Together received a fine of £14,250 for over 20 breaches of electoral law in September 2021,[5] which a spokesman for the Commission stated was "towards the high end of [the] scale".[8]

Labour Party offices[edit]

Chief of Staff[edit]

Starmer succeeded in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election on 4 April 2020 with 56.2% of the vote and immediately picked McSweeney as his chief of staff, causing him to leave Labour Together.[7][5] Following Labour's defeat in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election in May, he allegedly wrote on a whiteboard in Labour headquarters, "change Labour. Change Britain."[3]

Following Labour's worst ever by-election performance in the 2021 Chesham and Amersham by-election in June and in anticipation of the July Batley and Spen by-election, Starmer moved McSweeney from his role as Chief of Staff to a "strategic role" in his office on 20 June, though he remained as Starmer's "number one adviser".[9]

Director of Campaigns[edit]

McSweeney was appointed as Labour's director of campaigns in September 2021.[7] He also worked to impose a new MP selection process for the Labour Party, centralising the longlisting of candidates which largely locked out left wing candidates and those connected to Corbyn's leadership.[2] The Times has noted that "Those who question his authority inevitably find Starmer sides with McSweeney."[3]

He is expected to lead preparations for the next United Kingdom general election,[5] with Scotland being a priority target for his campaign.[10] McSweeney made contact with members of the US Democratic Party and Australian Labor Party, respectively Neera Tanden and Anthony Albanese, to discuss election tactics.[11] He argued in a December 2023 shadow cabinet meeting that despite Labour's significant lead in national polls, six different elections from around the world were examples of leads reversing once campaigns began.[12][13]

Personal life[edit]

McSweeney lives in Lanark, Scotland. He met his wife, former animal rights activist Imogen Walker, in Lambeth, and they have a son.[3][6] In September 2023, Walker was a potential Labour parliamentary candidate in Hamilton and Clyde Valley,[10] but stood in Lanark and Hamilton East in October.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Morgan James MCSWEENEY personal appointments". Gov.UK. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. 17 May 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Maguire, Patrick (5 January 2024). "The real power behind Starmer — who would rather stay in the shadows". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  4. ^ Mason, Rowena; Crerar, Pippa (7 October 2023). "Who's who in Keir Starmer's reshaped top team?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pogrund, Gabriel; Yorke, Harry (11 January 2024). "The secretive guru who plotted Keir Starmer's path to power with undeclared cash". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wearmouth, Rachel (16 November 2022). "Morgan McSweeney – Labour's power broker". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Adu, Aletha (27 October 2023). "Eyes on the prize: thinktank that put Keir Starmer and Labour on front foot". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  8. ^ Penna, Dominic (12 November 2023). "Labour group once run by Starmer's right-hand man fined for failing to declare donations". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  9. ^ Stubley, Peter (19 June 2021). "Starmer moves top adviser to 'strategic role' after by-election disaster". The Independent. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  10. ^ a b Cowley, Jason (24 September 2023). "Scottish showdown is a seminal moment for Keir Starmer". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  11. ^ Parker, George; Pickard, Jim; Politi, James; Fedor, Lauren (27 June 2023). "Labour covertly met US Democrats during Sunak's Washington visit". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  12. ^ Stacey, Kiran (3 January 2024). "Labour's poll lead could still collapse, shadow ministers warned". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  13. ^ Courea, Eleni (7 December 2023). "Rishi Sunak's looming leadership crisis". Politico. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
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