Keir Starmer’s current chief of staff described the Prime Minister as an ‘HR manager not a leader’ while claiming that Angela Rayner simply ‘manipulates people’.
Morgan McSweeney became the Prime Minister’s chief of staff in October last year after Sue Gray quit the role, saying the ‘intense commentary’ surrounding her position ‘risked becoming a distraction’.Â
Mr McSweeney, who is known for masterminding Labour’s general election, joined the party under Tony Blair while working in a junior role at the party’s headquarters.
In 2017, he became a director of the think tank Labour Together, which opposed the politics of Jeremy Corbyn.Â
He later left the organisation to help run Sir Keir’s 2020 leadership bid by becoming his chief of staff.
However, according to a new book on Sir Keir’ rise to power, the fears of his closest aides have been revealed.
The Times report that the chief of staff told one friend in the early phase of Starmer’s leadership that: ‘Keir acts like an HR manager, not a leader.’
Describing Rayner, he told another friend: ‘Angela is political all the time, she manipulates people… all of her people from from Unite.Â
Morgan McSweeney reportedly described the Prime Minister as an ‘HR manager not a leader’
Mr McSweeney became the Prime Minister’s chief of staff in October last year after Sue Gray quit the role
According to a new book on Sir Keir’ rise to power, Mr McSweeney said: ‘Angela is political all the time, she manipulates people’
‘Keir doesn’t realise these are people he cannot do business with.’
McSweeney and his acolytes are even reported to have said: ‘Keir’s not driving the train. He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR.’Â
This comes after Labour insiders accused Starmer in December of having ‘no plan’ after entering Downing Street and presiding over a government of ‘drift and dysfunction’.
A searing analysis of the Prime Minister’s struggles during his first months in office was published by left-leaning commentator Jason Cowley, quoting cabinet members’ frustrations about the new regime’s performance.Â
He spoke out about what he says a cabinet member described to him as ‘drift and dysfunction’ since Labour came to power after the general election.
He quoted party sources as making stinging comparisons between Sir Keir’s approach to government and how former Labour PM Tony Blair, his chief of staff Jonathan Powell and Chancellor Gordon Brown got started after triumphing in 1997.
Mr McSweeney helped run Sir Keir’s 2020 leadership bid by becoming his chief of staff
Deputy Prime Minister Rayner is pictured giving a speech in Leeds, to launch the English devolution white paper
Starmer has also recently been urged to replace Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary amid growing concerns she has ‘lost her grip’ of the Government’s anti-terror agenda.
Senior Labour insiders fear that lives are being put at risk by a ‘squeamish and timid’ failure to target Islamic suspects.
Tensions have risen in the fallout from the Southport murders, with No 10 understood to be frustrated the Home Office has shied away from focusing on Islamist violence – despite a report warning about the dangers of such an approach.
Two years ago the previous government vowed to ‘swiftly implement’ a major overhaul of Prevent, the scheme to stop people being radicalised into becoming involved with terrorism.
It came after the report by William Shawcross concluded it was not sufficiently focused on Islamist terrorism, despite it being responsible for 94 per cent of terror-related deaths since 1999.
