McSweeney and Gray: the powers behind Keir Starmer - podcast
After Labour’s 2019 election defeat, Keir Starmer vowed to transform the party. Who are the advisers who have helped him shape it? Jessica Elgot reports
In this episode, we hear about two of the most influential figures within Keir Starmer’s camp: his campaign director, Morgan McSweeney, and his chief of staff, Sue Gray.
“McSweeney is probably the most influential person in this transformation of the Labour party, and by some distance,” Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor, tells Michael Safi. “He understands all the mechanisms in the party that give you power, the things that are a barrier to the leader’s success.”
Jess also explains why Sue Gray, the former “formidable operator in Whitehall”, became the pick for the Labour chief of staff role.
“She had a reputation that was just completely unmatched, even before the public really knew about Sue Gray,” Jess says. “Civil servants and Conservative advisers would sort of talk about her in hushed tones. She was the person who would look into your background to see if you could have a job in government.”
What do McSweeney and Gray’s backgrounds tell us about what a Labour government would look like?
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