LONDON — A top aide to ex-Prime Minister Keir Starmer wanted the government to set up a think tank that would sit outside the usual scrutiny which applies to 10 Downing Street, he told a private event Tuesday.
Morgan McSweeney came to believe it was “impossible” for No. 10 to be strategic and moved to create a new “function that sits outside government,” he told an audience in central London. POLITICO obtained a recording of his comments at the event, from which journalists were barred.
“One of the things that I was working on when I was leaving No. 10, and I would have kept working on this, is that I think it’s impossible for No. 10 to be strategic,” said McSweeney, who resigned in February over his role in Starmer’s doomed decision to make Peter Mandelson Britain’s ambassador to the U.S.
“I wanted No. 10 to set up its own think tank that was separate from government, that wasn’t government, and then protected it from the level of scrutiny that government needs — but thinking shouldn’t have,” he added. “[The scrutiny] prevents people from thinking difficult thoughts and it prevents government from bringing in the most creative minds in the country because the level of scrutiny on them and of their views is just too high.”
He added: “Therefore [No 10] is actually starved of strategic thinking. Because if you’re in No. 10 and you write anything down it’s FOI-able, blah-blah-blah,” he said, referring to the Freedom of Information Act that allows the public to request internal government messages.
McSweeney is familiar with the think tank scene, having run Labour Together, influential on the party’s right wing, before joining Starmer’s team. Labour Together has since rebranded as Think Labour following a donations scandal and the revelation it had paid a lobbying firm to conduct secret research into journalists.
McSweeney served as Starmer’s chief of staff and in other senior roles since 2020, including as campaign director for Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 general election.
After a career spent avoiding public appearances, since leaving government he has given a handful of interviews — though still only sparingly. McSweeney has made other interventions on the conflict in Ukraine, warning of the threat to democracies posed by disinformation and artificial intelligence-driven content. He has also set up his own public affairs firm.
Whitehall grumbles
Recounting his time in Downing Street — where he worked for Starmer, who often expressed frustration with the slow pace of movement in Whitehall — on Tuesday night, McSweeney repeatedly returned to his view that there are too many “arm’s-length bodies” involved in government — in reference to quangos and other public agencies which are independent from, but funded by, government and hold sway over policy-making.
“Government can do things in crises. I think the starting point has got to be for government to realize just how close we are to so many crises, and start acting in accordance that we are in one,” McSweeney said.
“Too much has been delegated to and spent on arm’s-length bodies over the years, which has deliberately weakened the government as a way of trying to bridge the trust gap with the public,” he said. “I think at the center, people don’t realize that it’s not that the public are impatient; it’s that they have no time.”
He claimed the “center” of government is “too weak” and should be strengthened. In his only reference to new prime minister Andy Burnham — who replaced Starmer amid turmoil in the governing party this summer — McSweeney said the “new prime minister was right to make the cabinet secretary stronger in the center.” Burnham is reportedly planning to give Antonia Romeo, Britain’s top civil servant, more legal powers in legislation expected next year.
McSweeney also expressed frustration with the technological constraints on day-to-day working in Downing Street — claiming those in government cannot use non-state-approved large language models on government devices or “download the best apps to make yourself as effective as possible.” He said Google apps cannot be used in No. 10.
“If you’ve lived your whole life and connected it all via Google, you’re in trouble,” he said. “I find that I’m far more productive outside of government than I was inside of government.”
The former top strategist claimed too that he personally secured Downing Street staff the right to “copy and paste” text while working in the building or using government devices.
“The most successful political battle I won in No. 10 about the use of technology was to allow us to copy and paste,” he said. “Took me about six months, built quite a coalition.”
“I just refused to leave the office of the people whose decision it was, when they said they were reviewing it for the second time,” he added.
