In a captivating tale of modern-day Machiavellian politics, the spotlight shines not on Labour leader Keir Starmer, but on his Irish chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. This account paints a picture of a shrewd and relentless operator who has been one of the most consequential figures in contemporary British politics.
The story begins with McSweeney, a self-described “17-year-old slacker” from a small town in County Cork, who makes his way to London and cuts his teeth in the rough-and-tumble world of local campaigning. Mesmerised by the early triumphs of Tony Blair, he secures menial roles on the New Labour campaign, before gradually rising through the ranks.
As Jeremy Corbyn and his allies gain control of the party in 2015, McSweeney responds with an organisation called Labour Together, which he presents as benignly helpful to Corbyn’s leadership. In reality, his aim is to destabilise and delegitimise Corbynism, paving the way for its eventual destruction.
With Corbyn’s cataclysmic defeat looming, McSweeney sets his sights on Starmer as the candidate to replace him. The authors depict Starmer not as the master of his own fate, but as someone acting a part that others have ghostwritten for him. Much of Labour’s strategy is developed not in the shadow cabinet, but in McSweeney’s “kitchen cabinet” of like-minded apparatchiks.
The book’s dramatic details surrounding Starmer’s near-resignation following the Hartlepool by-election debacle highlight the extent to which the Labour leader is seen as a pawn in McSweeney’s game. The strategist’s ruthless pursuit of a “cleansing confrontation” with the left is executed with such remorselessness that the 2021 party conference marks the death of Corbynism without a peep of dissent.
As the Conservatives implode and Labour surges towards power, the authors paint a picture of a party in which preparation for government has been thin, with a civil servant-turned-chief of staff, Sue Gray, depicted as a power-hoarding control freak who is ultimately no match for the cunning McSweeney.
This is a rattlingly good tale of a modern-day Machiavelli, and one that is sure to cause consternation within the Labour leadership. Prime ministers, it seems, do not take kindly to being portrayed as the dumb instruments of someone else’s design.
