Welfare row may turn PM's top adviser into his fall guy

Dominic Cummings, Theresa May’s “Nick and Fi” – prime ministerial advisers rarely last as long as the PM they work for, as they become lightning rods for criticisms of the administration.

- KATE DEVLIN WHITEHALL EDITOR

And with anger growing over Labour’s welfare cuts, will the same now be true for Keir Starmer’s background fixer Morgan McSweeney?

Labour MPs are calling for “regime change” in Downing Street, with some hitting out at the over-excitable boys in Starmer’s top team.

Many blame Starmer’s chief of staff, the softly spoken Irishman McSweeney, for ignoring the rising concerns of a huge number of Labour backbenchers over his plans to deny welfare payments to hundreds of thousands of disabled people in a bid to save £5bn a year.

The government has been thrown into chaos after more than 120 Labour MPs – enough to sink the government’s large majority – signed up to a move that could scupper the cuts, despite threats of deselections and warnings over the government’s potential collapse.