The resignation of Morgan McSweeney will make it “harder” for Sir Keir Starmer to hang on as Prime Minister, according to his former Downing Street Director of Communications.
Speaking to GB News, James Lyons emphasised the significance of Mr McSweeney’s role within the administration and said it “cannot be overstated”.
Morgan McSweeney has resigned as Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff after accepting “full responsibility” for advising on the appointment of Lord Mandelson.
In a statement, he said: “After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the Government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong.
“He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself. When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.
“In public life, responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.”
Reacting to Mr McSweeney’s departure, Mr Lyons told GB News: “First of all, I’d just like to say that I think this is very sad news for Morgan personally.
“Whatever’s going on around the Mandelson appointment, this is a guy who saved the Labour Party effectively, and has huge skills as well as being a very charismatic character.”
Morgan McSweeney’s departure will make it ‘harder’ for Keir Starmer to hang on to power, James Lyons has warned
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Pushing back on the remarks, host Dawn Neesom responded: “When you say save the Labour Party, he could also end up being the one that destroys the Labour Party – it was his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson which he now admits is wrong?”
Mr Lyons admitted: “As a fully paid up member of the guild of advisers, I would point out that actually advisors give advice, they don’t make the decisions. But look, there’s no kind of overstating how important Morgan has been in Keir Starmer’s Government.
“It was sometimes difficult to work out whether Morgan was central to the Keir Starmer project, or Keir Starmer was central to the Morgan McSweeney projects.”
He warned Sir Keir: “His departure now makes the Prime Minister’s chances of getting through all of this – it makes it hard for the Prime Minister to get through all of this in the longer term.
The downfall of Morgan McSweeney | GB NEWS/PA/GETTY
“One of the many roles that Morgan played in Government was being a lightning conductor for criticism from various different parts of the Labour Party and, of course, from the media. So that has now gone, and that obviously is going to make the Prime Minister’s position more exposed.”
Questioned on what message the resignation of Mr McSweeney is “sending out to those circling the Prime Minister”, the ex-Communications Director told GB News: “I’ve been saying for some time that I couldn’t see how Morgan’s departure would improve the Prime Minister’s situation, but I guess it’s also true that him remaining could have made it worse.
“We are going to get this extraordinary avalanche of documents and messages at some point in the near future, and that could throw up all sorts of new revelations or details which could be very, very difficult for all sorts of people in Government.”
Grilled on whether we can expect a similar statement from Sir Keir any time soon, Mr Lyons made clear that the Prime Minister “regrets” appointing Mr Mandelson.
Mr Lyons told GB News that there will be an ‘extraordinary avalanche of documents and messages’
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He said: “The Prime Minister said last week that he regrets making the appointment, he regrets taking the decision. He says he was lied to by Peter Mandelson, and when the documents come out and we see, when this Pandora’s box is opened, the Prime Minister is going to have to have some pretty strong things to say.
“Whether that’s about generally kind of cleaning up politics, but I wonder if he might also end up having to go a little bit further and just saying, well, look, on the basis of what was known at the time, I was wrong to make the appointment.”
Mr Lyons concluded: “But we’ll have to wait and see. What is certainly true is a lot of the Prime Minister’s critics are being rather wise after the fact because, as I understand it, everything that’s presented to the Prime Minister is already in the public domain.
“And obviously, Peter Mandelson’s appointment was widely heralded as a kind of genius political move by many people who follow these things.”