Morgan McSweeney

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.

Morgan James McSweeney was born on 19 April 1977 in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland. His father, Tim McSweeney, was a senior partner in an accounting firm. His mother, Carmel McSweeney, was a retired office worker and keen bridge player. His parents supported Fine Gael. His grandfather on his father's side, Michael McSweeney, fought for the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and got a medal for it. He supported the pro-treaty side in the Irish Civil War and later joined Fine Gael. His aunt, Evelyn McSweeney, was a Fine Gael councillor and mayor of Macroom three times. Her daughter, Clare Mungovan, has worked as an adviser to Fine Gael leaders Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris. As a child, McSweeney played hurling and was a mascot for the Macroom GAA Gaelic football team. He showed no interest in politics when young and liked sports, including being a Liverpool F.C. fan.

He moved to London in 1994 at the age of 17. He first lived with his mother's sister in Fulham. He worked on building sites. He started university at the London School of Economics but left after two years. He then stayed with his uncle, a priest, in California. After that, he spent several months on the Sarid kibbutz in Israel in the late 1990s. Aged 21 in 1998, he went back to university. He studied marketing and politics at Middlesex University and graduated with a degree.

In 1997, motivated by backing for the Good Friday Agreement, McSweeney joined the Labour Party, and in 2001 he was hired to work as an intern receptionist and then in the party's attack and rebuttal unit in Millbank, where he input data into Peter Mandelson's "Excalibur" database. Alan Milburn dispatched McSweeney to marginal seats to campaign for Labour in the 2005 general election.

He moved on to campaign for Steve Reed for the 2006 Lambeth London Borough Council election, working to take control of the council from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, gaining a reputation as a "formidable organiser," according to The Guardian. Labour succeeded in the election, gaining the council from a previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. McSweeney simultaneously ran as a council candidate in the 2006 Sutton London Borough Council election, which he lost with 149 votes. He then worked as chief of staff for Reed in Lambeth Council.