The Conservatives have called for an investigation into Keir Starmer’s beleaguered chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, after allegations he tried to mislead the elections watchdog over donations to a Labour thinktank he ran while in opposition.
The organisation, Labour Together, was fined £14,250 by the Electoral Commission in 2021 over its handling of almost £740,000 of donations. The Tories have claimed that it used a “false excuse” of administrative errors.
They have now released a leaked email from Labour lawyer Gerald Shamash, in which he advised McSweeney to drop his claim that he had been told he did not have to declare the donations, adding that he hoped to minimise publicity for the rule breach.
“My advice, but it is in practice the only realistic route, we are being and have to be seen as transparent as possible,” Shamash wrote. “The amounts of the late reported donations is £739,492 and there are, in my view, no easy way to explain how Labour Together finds itself in this situation.
“If Labour Together cannot deal substantively with questions I pose then perhaps simply best to base our case as to the non-reporting down as admin error.”
It was only after McSweeney’s departure from the organisation that his replacement, Hannah O’Rourke, found almost three years of donations had not been declared and filed a series of late declarations to the watchdog.
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, has described the allegations over McSweeney’s handling of the donations as “muck-racking” but the emails threaten to reopen controversy surrounding Labour Together, which has supported Starmer’s leadership.
McSweeney, who masterminded Labour’s 2024 election landslide, left his role with the thinktank in April 2020 to become a senior aide to Starmer in opposition and then in government.
However, he has been facing growing unrest from Labour MPs in recent weeks over the party’s poor poll ratings, as well as criticism over his advice to Starmer to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite knowing about his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction.
Downing Street has refused to answer questions about McSweeney’s time at Labour Together, but Starmer’s official spokesperson said the prime minister continued to have “full confidence” in his chief of staff.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory party chair, said: “The Conservatives are taking the unprecedented step of publishing leaked correspondence of the legal advice given to Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
“It shows how authorities may have been misled over hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations used to install Starmer as Labour leader. We believe there is a strong public interest in revealing the full truth to the public about possible criminal wrongdoing.”
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After the allegations first emerged at the weekend, a spokesperson for the thinktank said: “Labour Together proactively raised concerns about its own reporting of donations to the Electoral Commission in 2020.
“The Electoral Commission’s investigation, with which Labour Together fully cooperated, was completed in 2021. The outcome was made public and widely covered by the media at the time. Since this time, we have taken measures to ensure Labour Together is fully compliant with all Electoral Commission regulations.”
An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: “The commission thoroughly investigated the late reporting of donations by Labour Together and published our findings in 2021.
“We were satisfied that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that failures by the association occurred without reasonable excuse. Offences were determined and they were sanctioned accordingly.”
