Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney Resigns

The Price of Darkness: Why McSweeney Had to Go

Is there a point where political pragmatism becomes a moral contagion? For five months, the heart of the British government has been pulse-checked by the ghosts of Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean lair. Today, the man who served as Keir Starmer’s ideological compass and chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, finally admitted that the needle has hit zero.

McSweeney’s resignation is not merely a personnel change; it is a confession. By his own hand, he acknowledges that the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador was a catastrophic error of judgment that has “damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.” But as the “Prince of Darkness” is once again cast into the shadows, we must ask: how did a movement that promised to “clean up politics” end up acting as a laundromat for the reputation of a man so deeply entangled with a convicted sex offender?

The Architecture of a Scandal

The facts are as unsettling as they are undeniable. In late 2024, despite a mountain of public evidence regarding Lord Mandelson’s continued association with Jeffrey Epstein after his 2008 conviction, McSweeney championed him for the UK’s most prestigious diplomatic post.

The warning lights were flashing red long before the ink was dry. Earlier today, Labour peer Lord Maurice Glasman revealed the depth of the internal warnings that were ignored. Speaking to Trevor Phillips, Glasman recounted how he had explicitly warned Downing Street and McSweeney about the existence of photographs featuring Mandelson and Epstein together: blowing out birthday candles and shopping as if the world’s most notorious predator were merely a socialite friend. “They didn’t take my advice,” Glasman remarked with the weary tone of a man watching a predicted train wreck.

• The Vetting Vacuum: We now know that national security vetting was only initiated after the appointment was announced.
• The Intelligence Failure: Documents suggest Mandelson may have leaked market-sensitive information to Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis while serving as Business Secretary.
• The Financial Fog: US Department of Justice files indicate payments totaling $75,000 linked to Mandelson—claims he says he cannot “recollect.”

George Orwell once wrote that “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” When the Prime Minister tells us he “regrets” the appointment, he is using the language of a man who accidentally bought the wrong brand of coffee, not a leader who handed the keys to Washington to a man currently under police investigation for misconduct in public office.

The Institutional Rot

This is not just about one man’s poor advice. It is about a specific culture within the “New Labour” restoration project—a culture that prizes proximity to power and “dark arts” over the safety of the vulnerable and the integrity of the state.

For years, the Labour left warned that the rehabilitation of the Blairite old guard would bring with it the same stench of entitlement that defined the early 2000s. We were told we were being “factional.” Yet, here we are. While the government removes the whip from MPs for voting to feed hungry children, it was, until this week, quite content to let a man linked to the Epstein files represent our nation on the world stage.

The counterargument from the Downing Street bunker was always one of “experience.” They argued Mandelson was the only one capable of handling a volatile US administration. But what is “experience” worth if it is bought at the cost of the party’s soul? A diplomat whose past makes him susceptible to kompromat is not an asset; he is a liability.

McSweeney’s departure must be the beginning of a purge, not the end of a news cycle. His statement mentions the “women and girls whose lives were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein.” If those words are to mean anything, they must be followed by a fundamental overhaul of how we vet the people who run our country.

Morgan McSweeney says he leaves with pride. The public, looking at the wreckage of this administration’s moral authority, might find that hard to stomach. The “bigger cause” he refers to is supposedly the survival of a Labour government. But if that government cannot distinguish between a statesman and a suspect, what exactly is it surviving for?

The “Prince of Darkness” has finally eclipsed the sun of Starmer’s integrity.

Paul Knaggs

Editor & founder of Labour Heartlands. 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙍𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩. Citizen journalist and veteran writing from the working-class coalface challenging the corruption, liberal elitism, and political complacency that dominate Britain today. Dyslexic but driven… I write because silence serves the powerful. Defender of free speech, civil liberties, and real democracy. Committed to an open, accountable democracy, not the manufactured version handed down from party machines, think tanks, or the Westminster bubble.