Starmer's new chief echoes Johnson's 'homicidal robot'

If Sue Gray divided opinion inside and outside Keir Starmer’s cabinet – and she certainly did – then his chosen replacement may prove to be even more controversial.

- DAVID MADDOX

Even before the Sunday lunch of short knives saw Gray ousted from the top team, Morgan McSweeney was a deeply controversial figure within the Labour Party, a man who has attracted an almost pathological hatred from the left. But what is now fascinating many within the Westminster bubble are the comparisons between McSweeney and that recent Svengali figure at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government, Dominic Cummings.

Given that Johnson in his new autobiography Unleashed has compared Cummings to a fictional “homicidal robot” bent on destruction, this may not be the most comfortable comparison for the newly installed regime around Starmer.

But the comparisons are there to be seen. Both men earned their reputations masterminding extraordinary victories at the ballot box. Cummings headed Vote Leave to victory in the infamous EU referendum in 2016, and McSweeney first engineered Starmer’s leadership election victory in 2020, then the general election this year.

These alone do not link the two men in terms of personality. What really raised eyebrows were the briefings from McSweeney supporters over the weekend and at the start of this week as he took control of the levers of power in Downing Street.

A significant comparison is the idea that it was Cummings who is believed to have decided that Johnson was the man to get his agenda through, rather than the other way round. Similarly, McSweeney is understood to have decided that Starmer would replace Jeremy Corbyn before the thought had settled in Sir Keir’s mind.