Morgan McSweeney had a furious argument this week with Wes Streeting amid the astonishing row over Keir Starmer’s future.
Morgan McSweeney is facing calls to be sacked (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer’s most senior adviser had a furious row with Wes Streeting early this week amid astonishing briefings from No. 10 against the Health Secretary. In a further sign of huge divisions within the government, it’s been revealed that Mr Streeting’s phone call with the Downing Street chief of staff become “very shouty” when the top minister discovered plans to brief against him.
On Tuesday evening attacks against Mr Streeting emerged from No. 10 sources accusing him of plotting to oust Keir Starmer in a coup. It came alongside proactive briefings that Sir Keir would fight on to win any potential leadership election, and would not go quietly if plotters tried to remove him from Downing Street. The Sunday Times has now revealed that Mr Streeting became aware of the attacks on Tuesday afternoon, when approached by journalists ahead of publication that evening.
Wes Streeting slammed Morgan McSweeney (Image: Getty)
The top cabinet minister was returning to Whitehall from an Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in his east London constituency, when he picked up the phone to contact Mr McSweeney.
Sir Keir’s right-hand man, who is facing continuing calls to be sacked, denied that he was behind the briefings against Mr Streeting.
At this point the call became “very shouty” and “very angry”, as Mr Streeting refused to accept Mr McSweeney’s claims that he wasn’t behind the personal media attacks. The phone call “ended without resolution”, according to the paper.
This morning Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, also spoken about as a credible successor to Sir Keir, branded the briefing war “unedifying and deeply embarrassing for everyone concerned”.
She told Sky News that the row was Westminster “tittle tattle”, as she defended Sir Keir as “our Prime Minister”.
Mahmood branded Labour’s civil war ‘deeply embarrassing’ (Image: Getty)
“We won an election just under a year-and-a-half or so ago, when people thought that we would not win an election for maybe a generation or more. I have no time for these things that people say or brief off the record, or any of this, frankly, Westminster bubble tittle-tattle.
“If people have things to say, they should have the courage of their convictions and say so publicly, and that is not what is happening.
“I think what happened at the beginning of this week was – with all of those anonymous briefings – unedifying and deeply embarrassing for everyone concerned.”
However it’s also claimed that Angela Rayner is now also openly plotting for her own tilt at the top job, offering cabinet roles out to potential backers.
A source told the Sunday Telegraph that the sacked former deputy PM is “on manoeuvres” and “getting her ducks in a row”. On Friday night, Labour MP Clive Lewis became the first to call for the Prime Minister to quit over his ‘untenable’ position.
He told Channel 4: “I just don’t see how this can stagger on without any resolution on the horizon.”
