UK: Starmer's Chief of Staff, Communications Director Leave Amid Resignation Calls

Is Starmer still the right man to steer the ship or is his premiership over?
UK: Starmer's Chief of Staff, Communications Director Leave Amid Resignation Calls
Above: Former Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney in London on Oct. 6, 2025. Image credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-government narrative

Starmer may have made a mistake in his appointment of Mandelson, but the departure of his closest political ally shows the accountability and integrity needed to turn this premiership around and clean out the rot inside Westminster. Despite the dramatic appeal, this is no moment for a leadership change — it is time to let the dust settle and allow Starmer to fulfill what he was elected to do.

Government-critical narrative

Starmer is toast. Without McSweeney, the real leader of this government and a close ally of Peter Mandelson, a vacuous Prime Minister renowned for lacking his own political ideology has neither the ideas nor the support to run the country. Eighteen months of the Starmer project has delivered nothing but u-turns, scandals and undelivered promises. As his own team collapses around him, it's time to make a change for the sake of the nation before it is too late.

Metaculus Prediction



The Controversies



Go Deeper


Establishment split

CRITICAL

PRO



© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 6.18.0