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LONDON — Keir Starmer has made a big play as he seeks to get a grip on his troubled time in Downing Street — but he’s by no means escaped the danger zone.
Starmer entered No. 10 in July in a position of unusual strength after securing Labour’s biggest election win since 1997.
But it didn’t take long after Labour entered office for cracks to appear, with stories emerging of political allies being preferred for civil service jobs, Starmer and other ministers accepting freebies from donors and lobbyists, and discontent among government special advisers.
Starmer attempted to regain control of the situation Sunday in announcing the exit of Sue Gray, who as his chief of staff was central in guiding his transition to power, and a reshuffle of the advisers in his top team.
Gray was the best-known of all Starmer’s backroom operatives, following her long service as a senior mandarin which included leading an inquiry into the “partygate” scandal that contributed to Boris Johnson’s ousting.
As a civil service veteran, Gray had been supposed to ensure Labour’s smooth transition into government. Instead, bubbling unhappiness at her approach boiled over in spectacular style, with rivals briefing against her in the media and apparently leaking information revealing she was paid more than the PM himself.
Speculation over how much longer she could carry on came to an abrupt end when No. 10 announced she would be stepping aside, taking up a new role as “envoy to the nations and regions” as a consolation prize.
The move showed — not for the first time — that Starmer is willing to cut close ties in order to move forward, but it also leaves him exposed at an early juncture in his premiership.
One senior Whitehall official, granted anonymity like others in this piece to speak frankly, said: “Above all they still need to work out what this government actually wants for the country.”
Warm reception
Starmer’s righthand woman will now be replaced by his election guru, Morgan McSweeney, the government’s only backroom operative who could rival Gray in terms of notoriety.
The pair were widely reported to have clashed in the run-up to the reset. Gray was described by multiple colleagues as having sought an iron control over all matters inside Downing Street, allegedly creating a bottleneck that frustrated McSweeney’s political ambitions.
(An ally of Gray denied this, saying she was in constant conversation with McSweeney.)
Starmer’s new chief of staff has a long history with the PM, whom McSweeney backed from an early stage as a figure who could help him wrest back control of the Labour Party from the socialist left under Jeremy Corbyn. McSweeney was later instrumental in honing their calculations about where they could win votes to great effect, evidenced by the landslide victory of July 4.
Starmer has also bolstered his team’s ranks with James Lyons, a veteran political journalist-turned-comms chief who will lead on strategic communications for Downing Street.
Labour insiders have generally expressed relief at the news, seeing the appointments as a sign of Starmer’s determination to run a tighter ship.
Stewart Wood, a Labour peer and former aide to ex-PM Gordon Brown, said: “It’s a welcome thing to have a political spine in the top team in a way that clearly wasn’t there in the first two or three months.”
A new Labour MP, granted anonymity in order to speak frankly, agreed the appointments were a “positive” sign that the team at the top of the new government had taken the plunge and made a shakeup, “as opposed to just treading water for months without a decision, as we have seen in the past.”
McSweeney commands strong loyalty among MPs because of his role in securing such an election victory — albeit on an historically low vote share for a majority government — and his backers were quick to hail his promotion.
“We needed a decisive moment and this was it,” said one ally, while another hailed his talent for “building a loyal, strong team.”
The allies predicted that now the turf war with Gray was concluded, McSweeney could go on to notch quick wins in his new role by revisiting pay for special advisers, a source of tension for his predecessor who was accused of short-changing veteran Labour staffers, and by nailing down their contracts after they were left adrift at the outset of the new government.
Alex Thomas, program director at the Institute for Government think tank, argued that the setup would also be strengthened by the imminent appointment of a new head of the civil service. The departure of the current incumbent, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, was confirmed last week.
“The Cabinet secretary is the absolute lynchpin for all of this — the person who makes the system work on the prime minister’s behalf,” he said.
Lurking fears
Having defenestrated Gray, Starmer will now be under even more pressure to demonstrate that he is delivering.
“I don’t think anyone was expecting this to happen in this way at this time,” said Thomas. “It just shows that the aspiration to run things more managerially and calmly is not sufficient.”
The prime minister will now need to find an answer to the criticism, which has dogged him from day one, that he lacks a strong domestic agenda. While he has a strong parliamentary majority, Labour was elected on an historically low vote share for an incoming government.
Alastair Campbell, former PM Tony Blair’s communications director, told BBC Radio 4 that government was about “the relentless, endless, never-ending conversation that you’re having with the country about what you’re trying to do,” adding: “That bit has been largely missing.”
He added that in modern politics voters were “not prepared to give politicians much by way of benefit of the doubt, and that’s why you can’t afford too many missteps.”
Two people with inside knowledge of Labour, one a former aide and one an MP, pointed out that Starmer’s priorities for government, known as his “five missions,” were a particular concern of Starmer and Gray.
They predicted McSweeney could reformulate the somewhat clunky “missions” along punchier lines.
Wood said the forthcoming budget, due Oct. 30, could be “a gateway moment into a slightly more secure sort of period” where Downing Street would be able to “make sure that there’s a narrative that every minister is speaking to.”
An early reshuffle?
Another option available to Starmer and McSweeney is to reshuffle the Cabinet, as suggested to the Times, but several people in government said they doubted this was on the cards.
One person familiar with the thinking in No. 10 said the main impact of the reshuffle talk was to “have everyone on their toes,” especially as ministers were having “very, very difficult conversations” with the Treasury ahead of the budget and spending review, expected early next year.
The fear lurking behind all these predictions, however, is that one or more of these levers won’t work, and that ultimately it is Starmer’s instincts that are faulty — and that explain the rocky start to his premiership.
One longer-serving MP said McSweeney did not have Whitehall experience, “which could come back to bite us,” while “Starmer lacks people skills, and has surrounded himself with people with the same problem.”
McSweeney had a previous spell as Starmer’s chief of staff in opposition, but was removed amid accusations that the Labour leader was foundering on his watch without a clear vision.
The same MP complained there was now a “boys’ club” at the heart of No. 10, with those now in full charge of Downing Street blaming Gray for what had gone before. “Everything was always conveniently Sue’s fault, and not the lads’, despite all the major issues in Keir’s office predating her arrival,” she said.
One of the McSweeney allies quoted above rejected those claims, pointing out that Hollie Ridley, recently installed as Labour’s general secretary, had been one of his most senior lieutenants.
He also has two new and well-regarded female deputies in Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson.
For now, Starmer still has a host of considerable advantages on his side, notably a hefty parliamentary majority and a chief of staff with a proven winning record. But his early forced reset hints at the need for something more.
