Starmer could fall apart without his right-hand man

Labour MPs are calling for the Downing Street chief of staff to go - but at what cost

- Kate Devlin and David Maddox

The name Morgan McSweeney may not be on the lips of many people down the pub or at the school gate, but it is one that those in the Westminster bubble are obsessed with.

Labour MPs have always been aware of the Downing Street chief of staff's power and importance, as something they consider to be either a toxic poison at the heart of government or a means to future preferment and promotion. So the fact that they are telling Keir Starmer he has to sack his chief of staff - or potentially lose his own job - reveals a prime minister in serious trouble.

There have at times even been mutterings in Westminster’s corridors that this is not Starmer’s government at all, but rather McSweeney’s - that the prime minister has, in many ways, been the frontman for a project that is actually being directed by an unelected official in Downing Street. Tales from the last ministerial reshuffle emphasise his influence: the three people removed from the cabinet were all people McSweeney wanted out, according to sources.