The Queen is dead: long live the King. This week brought an end to Downing Street’s unhappy experiment in dyarchy. Out goes Sue Gray, banished to the regions. In her place stands the Irishman who won the No. 10 power struggle: Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s first chief of staff in opposition, is back on top. McSweeney’s allies believe that the new government will flourish into maturity after a troubled start. ‘We’re back to being political,’ one crows.
As another minister prefers to put it: ‘He needs to go around and crack some heads – and quick’
The new chief’s strengths are threefold. First, he is familiar with how the PM thinks. Unlike Gray – who knew little of Starmer before her appointment – McSweeney has been intimately involved in his rise to power. He ran Starmer’s leadership campaign in early 2020, served as head of his team for the next 18 months, then moved aside after the Hartlepool by-election humiliation before overseeing Labour’s landslide victory in July.
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