What is the Point of Morgan McSweeney?

When news reached his ears that John Golding was writing a tell-all memoir of his dirty tricks in the Labour Party during the 1980s, our recently-retired friend John Spellar made his displeasure known. His concern, apparently, was that the means by which the left were carved out and put in a box might be required in the future and making these methods public would not serve the right well.

This week's profile of Morgan McSweeney, the new Labour right hatchet man in the Golding/Spellar tradition must have provoked similar mutters from that wing of the party. Thanks to his efforts, Keir Starmer's or, to be more accurate, the Labour right's writ reigns supreme. And of the methods employed to this end, the article isn't backward about being forward. It baldly states that McSweeney's aim was the removal of all the Labour left's institutional influence. The sacking and attempted removal of candidates had nothing to do with spurious concerns about "quality". The parachuting of Labour right notables into constituencies they have zero connection to is confirmed as "rewards" for services rendered. So much for the idea that being an MP is a selfless act of service.

How McSweeney came to prominence had little to do with assimilating Golding's rambling tome. Instead of backroom chicanery, what he pushed was a brazenly dishonest political project. As the former organiser for Liz Kendall's leadership campaign, his chief take home was that if you want to win in the Labour Party from the right, you have to lie. And this is what he did through the Labour Together vehicle, which for a while posed as a soft left organisation with the faces and endorsements to match, and then Starmer's own Corbyn-lite bid for the party's top job. It's an unsubtle strategy, but one that has worked over the last four years. That the press are uninterested and remain so, knowing they need a stable government that will pander to their interests now the Tories are no longer available has proven handy. But so has the quiescence of the trade unions who, despite a bit of chuntering over workers' rights, have been largely disciplined in not wanting to make life difficult for the Labour leader. But this only has so much mileage where mainstream politics are concerned, and Starmer has already copped unwelome questionning regarding past fibbing.

This record of skulduggery puts a question mark over McSweeney's future use. When his "genius" is built on manufacturing departures from the truth, what does he offer when the political costs of getting caught out are much higher than telling porkies about party malcontents? The article talks about him deserving a "big job", and with the unwelcome return of Nigel Farage and the rising polling fortunes of Reform, this is supposedly one of McSweeney's "concerns". How a felicity for bullshitting Labour activists and pressing deselect buttons could protect his boss's flanks from the far right remains to be seen. Likewise, one of his reputed superpowers is to mind read middle England and have a feel for their instincts. We know that's code for consuming the content of very important centrist personages and yes, reading Ian Dunt and listening to James O'Brien on the daily requires preternatural fortitude. But how will their stunning insights help fend off electoral opposition to a Labour government from the Liberal Democrats and the Greens when, let's be euphemistic, their read on politics leaves a lot to be desired?

The best way a Starmer government can see off attacks from the right and the left is through delivery. Not the weak sauce printed on a pledge card or the changey vapourware of the manifesto, but through real, tangible improvements to public service and the living standards of "working people". Political science isn't rocket science, after all. What does McSweeney bring to this table? With the party sewn up and the magical transformation of right wing NEC members into Labour MPs, he is functionally obsolete. But he needn't worry much about his immediate future. The favours banked and the secrets buried will see him given a role where, like his allies, he gets to feel important and in charge. He might even enjoy the status of feted guru, like dear old Peter Mandelson. But to all intents and purposes, his very useful uses are now at an end.