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By Liz S

Talking of Labour….this is a very long comment and it includes text from an article written by Peter Oborne……and it paints Labour in a very bad light….because of Morgan McSweeney and Keir Starmer….but let’s not forget all of the Labour MP’s who have supported both of them in public…..and have passed many of the bad bills that impact the “many” while leaving the “few” unscathed……..#NoLabourWealthTax

However firstly………..here is a important fact…..

Let’s not allow what is happening just now (the introduction of mandatory ID Cards) be the only focal point in respect to Labour being #BAD…as there is another controversy linked to them……

Also remember ID Cards, were originally a Tony Blair concept, but they were rejected by Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds and also Labour’s Theresa Cooper last year and she, Cooper, said:

“ID cards were not in the party’s election manifesto” and she added: “That’s not our approach.” and the BBC reported in 2024 that Cooper also said that instead:

“The government was setting up a new enforcement and returns unit, as well as targeting people-smuggling gangs to prevent small boats crossings”.

So why then are we then seeing ID Cards back on the table (when they were not in the Labour GE Manifesto last year , which Cooper herself highlighted was the case ) ?

Why ?

Well just before the media became consumed with this as the big political news there was rumblings of another even more controversial political news, also big as news, that was linked to the Labour party…..but now that news seems to have been dwarfed as significant news by this new Labour government ID Scheme……..so what is this other controversy aka scandal ?

Well it is linked to Labour Together and Morgan McSweeney.

(BTW we also have other big political news as in Andy Burnham’s challenge to Starmer’s leadership and also the scandal of Peter Mandelson being appointed as UK Ambassador to the US by Keir Starmer)….

I mean this is really just a re-run of what happened with the previous lot, the Tories, of whom Keir Starmer was most critical of in respect to their constant scandals when he was the official opposition leader….which obviously Starmer , as the new PM, is unwilling to “Change”, as a continuing situation with his new Labour government.

Anyway….back to another big scandal …..(note that it is not only Peter Oborne who has written about this other particular scandal….as others too have commentated upon it….not in Scotland’s media though….for reasons which alas are only too obvious…).

So Peter Oborne has written an article for the Middle East Eye on 25 September entitiled:

“What Morgan McSweeney did in the shadows is set to haunt Starmer’s Labour”

“The behind-the-scenes machinations of Downing Street’s Chief of staff expose the unsavoury cabal that governs contemporary Britain”

“The political crisis started with the scandal over links with Peter Mandelson and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. McSweeney had pushed for Mandeslson, whom he regards as his Mentor, to be appointed to Ambassador in Washington”

“Almost at once the embarrassment of Mandeslon’s departure was compounded by a second blow to McSweeney’s Downing Street machine”

“Paul Ovenden, director of political strategy and a close ally, resigned, after it emerged that he was the author of offensive and sexual text messages about Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP”.

“The Ovenden departure was forced by a revelation in a forthcoming book by the investigative journalist Paul Holden titled The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy. And now comes the third and by far the most dangerous development”.

“Holden’s book will contain allegations of irregularities concerning what he calls “a secret unlawful fund” and more than £700,000 of donations to a think tank run by McSweeney. (Labour Together)”.

“These revelations are potentially dangerous for McSweeney. Far more importantly, they may impact viscerally on Starmer himself. This is because, according to Holden, the purpose of McSweeney’s think tank, misleadingly called Labour Together was to supercharge Starmer’s path to Downing Street. Once Starmer was installed in No 10 he rewarded McSweeney by making him Downing Street chief of staff”.

“The Tory Party is now claiming that new evidence has come to light that “raises the question of whether a criminal offence has been committed”.  In a letter to the Electoral Commission Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake makes the devastating allegation that the “funds were used by Labour Together in a sustained political campaign to bring down Jeremy Corbyn and secure the election of Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party”.

“This is especially significant because official records show Starmer did not declare any support from the group in the official Commons register. Under the Commons code of conduct MPs are required to declare support worth more than £1,500 designed to help their “candidacy at an election for parliamentary or non-parliamentary office”. To put the charges made into plain English, the Tories are in effect accusing McSweeney of arranging a secret slush fund to launch Starmer into Downing Street. Downing Street is refusing to answer questions about McSweeney’s time at Labour Together, while Starmer has “full confidence” in his chief of staff”.

(However didn’t Starmer also say he had “full confidence” in Peter Mandelson….then he sacked him).

“Holden is the antithesis of the back-slapping lobby journalist who typically flourishes at Westminster. Holden pursues a type of journalism that requires extraordinary dedication, courage and expertise. This should frighten McSweeney and Starmer.  They are accustomed to reporters seeking access who can be fobbed off with a giveaway front-page scoop or a quiet word with their boss. There was a reason why McSweeney placed himself next to Rupert Murdoch at the state banquet for Donald Trump”.

“Holden cannot be bought. He cannot be bribed. He cannot be intimidated.I have read his book in proof, and it is unlike any other political book I have read. It illustrates Starmer’s careen from the honourable left to the racists Right of British politics – and places McSweeney at the heart of that journey. It is important to remember that McSweeney – like Mandelson and Cummings before him – has done terrible damage to our public life”.

The article then goes on to further criticise Starmer and McSweeney.

(Let’s also not forget McSweeney’s wife won the candidacy for a Scottish constituency in last year’s GE – his wife Imogen walker then won the seat for Hamilton & Clyde Valley….then shortly after her winning this seat she was then appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rachel Reeves….then her career has kept ascending as in September 2025 she was appointed to the ministerial position of assistant government whip…..so seems it’s not what you know but who you know...allegedly).

So the Tories accusation is reported as them calling for “an investigation into whether Sir Keir Starmer failed to declare support from the think tank Labour Together during his 2020 leadership bid”

“In a letter to Parliament’s standards commissioner, Tory Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said details had come to light suggesting Sir Keir received polling and speechwriting help from the group – run at the time by Morgan McSweeney, now his chief of staff”

“Hollinrake claimed publicly available information and details published in Get In – a book by journalists from the Times newspaper on the prime minister’s rise to power – showed Labour Together gave Sir Keir polling, messaging and speechwriting help as he competed to take over from Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader”

“Over the same period Sir Keir listed support from some Labour Together backers in his parliamentary register of interests, but not any “donations in kind” from the group itself”.

“Labour Together were already fined £14,250 by the elections watchdog over its handling of almost £740,000 in donations in 2021……….several newspapers reported on alleged leaked emails suggesting Mr McSweeney had sought to mislead the commission…….the Electoral Commission said it was now considering the information shared by the Conservative Party and would “respond in due course”.

(Of course the Tories cannot talk as they too have their own many scandals…..which I will add one of them in another comment in the future on a particular Tory scandal via a TV programme which was broadcast recently , far too late and on a School night….but still it was seen by me and I am sure also seen by many others too).

On ITV’s GMB last week Andrew Pierce and Kevin McGuire spoke of this McSweeney Labour Together scandal :

“Email damns Starmer’s top aide (McSweeney) in £740,000 donations row” (effectively saying “there had been a breach of electoral law……..that money that was donated to fight the election wasn’t declared”).

Pierce said ““This is about a man called Morgan McSweeney the reason this is so significant is he is the most powerful unelected man in Britain , he is Keir starmer’s Chief of staff , incredibly influential , he helped him secure the Labour leadership and he ran the GE campaign and there was an organisation called Labour Together which amassed seven hundred thousand pounds in donations, which should have been declared , they were told the donations should have been declared and they weren’t on his watch , so Labour Together was fined £14,000. Why this has come up now is because emails have come to light which seems to suggest he (McSweeney) knew he was in breach of electoral law”

McGuire did not argue and he’s a Labour supporting Political editor of a Labour supporting newspaper The Mirror ““There’s a lot of ticking time bombs under Labour’s lot , ticking times bombs under Morgan McSweeney , because they were fined four years ago and it was dealt with then and I would have thought the Commission ain’t gonna reopen this….”

Pierce said “This is the PM’s right hand man who clearly broke electoral law , there is suggestion the reason these donations were covered up was because he didn’t want Corbyn , Jeremy Corbyn was leading the Labour party at the time, to now that all this money was being built up effectively a fund for Starmer”

McGuire said “That’s always been the suspicion , what it was really about . So the Corbynistas couldn’t put pressure on …..” he also said “he (McSweeney) pushed for Peter Mandelson to be appointed our man in Washington and that went disastrously wrong , he pushed for the Transport secretary Louise Haigh to be sacked over a minor former offence and I think that was a huge error . No there’s a lot of political reasons why I think he’s on shaky ground …..”.

This reminds me of Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson as in no “Change” with Labour and Starmer…..and Starmer’s way too influential Chief of Staff, who is also alleged to be entangled in a political scandal, as was Cummings…..

On Bluesky Saul Staniforth posted this interaction between Pierce and McGuire on ITV’s GMB in them discussing the Labour right group aka Think Tank and he posted:

“#GMB discussing the Labour right group ‘Labour Together’ not declaring their funding while Corbyn was Labour leader (because they wanted to hide it while they plotted against the then leadership) “.

Certainly puts into perspective all of the Labour criticism of the SNP with digs from Baillie and Anas Sarwar in respect to the #SnpPoliceInvestigation

As it is from a political Glass House that we often read and hear about Labour politicians criticising and condemning the SNP (same goes with Tories, Reform UK and Lib Dems) and so where Labour (and other parties) take the moral high Ground with no sense of awareness as to their own party’s indiscretions, scandals etc ??????

Or according to the current Tory party and this £700,000 worth of donations where they, the Tories, say it “raises the question of whether a criminal offence has been committed”. ……..will there be blue tents outside Morgan McSweeney’s home or some other high ranking individual within the Labour party ?………..will Labour HQ’s offices also be raided by the Police……as the SNP’s HQ were once raided by Police Scotland.

Q’s Q’s Q’s…………but not ones that will ever be asked by BBC Scotland…..that’s why Labour manage to win some seats in Scotland , as the media here are also very guilty of “hiding things while they seemingly plot against the SNP”…….

Karma is a bitch…..not that long ago Keir Starmer was gloating in the HOC and saying things to the SNP MP’s like “I remember when they used to sit here [pointing to the Lib Dem spot], it’s a long way up & there’s very few of them so I don’t think we need lectures on popularity”.

Well…..your time is almost up Starmer….then we , and too the SNP MP’s, can gloat over your departure as Labour leader and I suspect your party’s departure in the next UK GE……..I do hope we can also gloat at Labour being thrashed next year in the Scottish elections……..to then allow us to gloat even more at how bad your party are as governments (UK and Welsh ones) and also as politicians in general….especially branch office managers pretending to be ‘leaders’.

I will then remember when “you used to sit on” the front bench as the UK PM , but should your party dump you as their leader, then” it’s a long way up” & there have been quite a few ex PM’s sitting on the back benches, who were also rejected by their party, so “I don’t think we need lectures on popularity” from you Keir Starmer….as you currently are even more unpopular with the public than some of the former Tory PM’s were “…..and they were dire.