Morgan McSweeney
Morgan McSweeney | |
|---|---|
| Downing Street Chief of Staff | |
| In office 6 October 2024 – 8 February 2026 | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Deputy |
|
| Preceded by | Sue Gray |
| Succeeded by | Vidhya Alakeson (acting) Jill Cuthbertson (acting) |
| Head of Political Strategy 10 Downing Street | |
| In office 5 July 2024 – 6 October 2024 Serving with Paul Ovenden | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 4 April 2020 – 20 June 2021 | |
| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Karie Murphy |
| Succeeded by | Sam White |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Morgan James McSweeney 19 April 1977 Macroom, County Cork, Ireland |
| Party | Labour |
| Spouse | Imogen Walker |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Middlesex University (BA) |
Morgan James McSweeney (born 19 April 1977) is an Irish political strategist for the British Labour Party. He served as Downing Street Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Keir Starmer from October 2024 until his resignation in February 2026. A close colleague and adviser to Starmer for multiple years, he was ranked first in a 2024 New Statesman poll on influential people in UK left-wing politics, and has been compared to Dominic Cummings and Peter Mandelson.
McSweeney joined the Labour Party in 1997, motivated by backing for the Good Friday Agreement, and in 2001 he was hired to work as an intern receptionist and then in the party's attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank. From 2008 until 2010, he campaigned with David Evans, Jon Cruddas, Margaret Hodge and Hope not Hate against the British National Party. Before working with Starmer, McSweeney ran council and leadership campaigns for Steve Reed in 2006 and Liz Kendall in 2015, and formed the Labour Together think tank in 2017. In 2020, he led Starmer's successful Labour leadership campaign and held senior roles under Starmer including Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition, Labour's director of campaigns, and campaign director for the party during the 2024 general election, which the party won.
McSweeney was originally appointed Head of Political Strategy at 10 Downing Street alongside Paul Ovenden in July 2024 and was later appointed chief of staff following Sue Gray's resignation in October 2024. He resigned from the role in February 2026 amid internal pressure over his role in recommending Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the United States following revelations about Mandelson's ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, acknowledging it was wrong and had damaged the party and trust in politics.
During his work with Starmer in both opposition and government, McSweeney was widely credited with shaping Labour's shift towards the political centre, though he also faced accusations of political factionalism and briefing against Sue Gray and Wes Streeting. Starmer stated that he and the Labour Party owe McSweeney a "debt of gratitude" for his years of service and credited him with a central role in the party's electoral success, including the 2024 landslide majority.