Ex‑aide McSweeney says Labour 'failed to prepare for power'

politicsJul 2, 202624404

In his first media interview, Morgan McSweeney, who ran Labour's 2024 election campaign and served as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff, told the BBC that Labour "didn't prepare enough for what kind of world we were going to" before its landslide 2024 victory. McSweeney said the party failed to reckon with how Britain had changed since Labour was last in government in the 1990s and that leaders did not have enough top-level conversations about what that meant for the state. He conceded Labour did not deliver quickly enough after taking office, that it should have been "way more optimistic" in its early months, and accepted personal responsibility for the lack of preparation. McSweeney singled out an early decision to remove winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners, which the government later reversed, as a mistake that "defined the government" and caused substantial damage. He also said there was a widespread expectation inside Labour that it might need two elections to return to power, and that planning had at times assumed defeat rather than victory. McSweeney resigned earlier this year over his role in Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US, and said he was still processing Starmer's rapid political downfall two years after returning to office.

Sean Kemp

@seankemp.bsky.social

This quote from the Morgan McSweeney interview is nuts. Labour had been miles ahead for years by this point. Every public affairs consultancy in the UK was preparing for an inevitable Labour Government. But Labour wasn't? Really?

Quote is "He said that there had been a widespread expectation that Labour would require at least two elections to return to power after its crushing defeat in 2019, and "quite a lot of people" thought it needed a plan for defeat rather than victory in 2024.

He recalled that during planning meetings early that year, he "did start to realise that we hadn't done enough to prepare for government".

595h ago

Stephen Moore3

It might have been a reasonable starting point in 2019 but, were I styling myself a political strategist, I might have taken note of a few events in British politics over the following three years.

Quoting this

George E. Osborn2

This summarises one of McSweeney's biggest and simplest problems: he wanted to be the campaigns guy and the Big Brain behind the operation. Those roles are usually split because one is obsessed with 'now' (campaigns) and the other with 'next' (post-election thinky stuff). Being both = no bueno.

Lynne #TaxTheRich #WelfareNotWarfare #MakeLabourHistory

@bebsdotteragain.bsky.social

According to “a paper written by JP Spencer” one of those “feeding ideas” to Andy Burnham. JP Spencer is from the think tank re-named “Think Labour” which was untill recently called “Labour Together”! McSweeney & pals really do think that the public are stupid! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

329h ago

Kev5

Unfortunately, some are. They can be found on here, pledging their support for Labour

geojl.bsky.social2

How does that work if you have a Reform mayor, I wonder? Reform seems to enjoy disregarding rules and fairness at a a local level.

honeywallbeer.bsky.social1

Was 'Labour Together' rebranded because of its toxicity? The 'think-tank' that stymied a Corbyn-led Labour government in favour of Johnson because they couldn't stand the prospect of a socialist administration making people's lives better at the expense of over-wealthy corporations and individuals?

LaReyne1

And there I though Burnham was about to be crowned because he came with a set of ideas

Quoting this

Lynne #TaxTheRich #WelfareNotWarfare #MakeLabourHistory6

Here Burnham shows he is squarely aligned with ‘Labour Together’ and the whole McSweeney agenda!

J Green5

Aren't you sick of these people? Who do they serve? It's not us.

Tom Roberts

@tpgroberts.bsky.social

You can really see why he got along with Keir Starmer in that every answer in this makes me wonder what planet he came from. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

626h ago

Tom Roberts37

Tom gets this right here, if Labour were still prepping for a defeat then the heart of the party was clearly just wrong. If this is true, and I doubt it, then why would you admit it? This is RTD "I haven't written the finale" level bullshit. bsky.app/profile/onel...

benway14.bsky.social1

If the blind leads the gullible both will fall into the job centre.

Quoting this

Dorian Lynskey72

Man walks away from the building he burned down

Joel8

I guess you had to be there

flyingrodent

@flyingrodent.bsky.social

Fair dues: Robinson essentially says Labour people think Starmer was Morgan’s glove-puppet - e.g. Sweep, but with a much more annoying voice - and that McSweeney would end the careers of anyone who displeased him via some form of abysmal, tiresome admin cuntery, which is obviously all true.

595h ago

Prof Bill McGuire

@profbillmcguire.bsky.social

Utter Tosh from this ex-Starmer wonk They certainly delivered cutting pensioner's winter fuel payments quickly - and trying to slash benefits for the disabled www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

196h ago

London Review of Books

@lrb.co.uk

‘The Starmer Project, such as it ever existed – or we should probably call it the McSweeney Project – it looked inwards. It was about the battle for supremacy and struggle for mastery in and of the Labour Party.’ @patrickmaguire.bsky.social on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

1411h ago

Andy Burge 🇬🇧🇪🇺

@andygjburge.bsky.social

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... McSweeney: "I can't say forever, but certainly for the next few years I'm committing to being out of politics for at least the next few years ahead." Brits: "Thank f**k for that. You're a fucking Tory anyway. Do make sure the door hits you hard on the way out".

175h ago

Paul Harper2

Curious how, when it is failure being discussed by McSweeny, it is "the party" or "we" but when it's successes it's "me" or "I"...

barb58.bsky.social1

Creepy little bloke, isn't he 🤢

Mic Wright

@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social

What an ‘interesting’ way George Parker tells McSweeney’s story here. Anyone who has read Paul Holden’s book, The Fraud, will know it’s total fiction though. McSweeney was actively involved in getting Corbyn’s Labour mired in scandal www.ft.com/content/3d0a...

13Just now

Bonobobananas1

He’s an awful smear of turd that man 🚮

Olivia Newton-Jim1

Seems to be a lot of well-paid, high-profile lads in UK politics who know how to stare at the far corner of the room when there is useful information on the go.

Jack

@jacklikesfilm.bsky.social

If only there was some way you could've just not kept doing what he wanted... Mandelson has absolutely no defence, at all, obviously. But fuck letting McSweeney, Starmer or anyone else in Labour get away with pretending they didn't do all this knowingly.

115h ago

magnetron21

@markwolves.bsky.social

I think the main issues were to do with expectation management (of many MPs and the public), and communications. Sue Gray should have been kept in position. And several of those closest to the PM should have done better, far better. A very good PM was too kind. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

105h ago

Barbello Barbz

@dangermike.bsky.social

JFC this guy was considered to be a political mastermind? No wonder the Labour Party is fucked.

No 10 North
Elsewhere in his interview, McSweeney said he found Donald Trump "much funnier than I expected him to be".
He said that during his first phone call with Sir Keir, officials in the room had been "barely able to contain themselves" with a joke the US president made about foxes eating birds killed by "windmills" - his preferred term for wind turbines.
"He went on to say that as the foxes ate so many birds and became lazy, they became fat, and as they became so fat people no longer knew what kind of a creature they were," he added.
Asked whether Trump had been trying to be funny, he replied: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Definitely."

81h ago

Mic Wright7

It’s great to see him demonstrate his shallowness with so little provocation.

Kaiser of Crisps4

The fact that he's not embarrassed to share this utterly risible anecdote shows a complete lack of self-awareness.

JoobileeJoolz1

Sycophantically fluffing a fascist dictator. What an arsehole. 😒

The London Economic

@thelondoneconomic.bsky.social

Morgan McSweeney, the former chief of staff to Keir Starmer, has admitted Labour did not properly prepare for power ahead of the 2024 general election.

114h ago

Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪4

McSweeney should never have been allowed within a mile of Downing Street.

The Spectre Haunting Europe

@frightfulhobgoblin.bsky.social

McSweeney casually admitting here what they spent eighteen months denying whilst he was in government: that in fact, they did know that Mandelson was a close personal confidant of Epstein, and they appointed him anyway. They knew. They all knew. The Labour Party must fall.

94h ago

Rob 🏳️‍🌈

@rotster.net

Love it when the BBC start to rehabilitate the people thrown out of politics in disgrace. The establishment politics/media machine doing what it does best. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

76h ago

Holly Brigstocke

@hollybrigstocke.bsky.social

It's curious how McSweeney, Labour Together, their donors, and the Starmer regime have escaped prosecution for fraud and election interference etc etc and how the far right get a free ride in politics and the media... 🤔

12Yesterday

1 source

bbc.co.ukLabour failed to prepare for power, admits PM's ex-aide McSweeney

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Ex‑aide McSweeney says Labour 'failed to prepare for power'

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