THE PM’S powerful chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is “not going anywhere” No10 declared – despite calls for him to be sacked over the welfare fiasco.
Keir Starmer is battling to shore up his grip on power after being forced to massively water down benefits cuts in the latest screeching U-turn.
Rebel Labour MPs blame Mr McSweeney for the row and had demanded the PM sack the senior aide as part of a “regime change” in No10.
One rumour circulating among a small and well connected group of Labour figures suggested Mr McSweeney was fed up with No10 and wanted to leave.
He had intentions to go back to the Labour headquarters to lead the party’s campaigns and elections team, focusing on defeating Reform by 2029, according to a source familiar with No10.
But last night Downing Street insisted the PM’s Svengali is going nowhere.
A No10 source said: “Tittle tattle about a change to chief of staff is uninformed nonsense.
“He isn’t going anywhere.”
Ministers are confident they will get their benefits legislation over the line on Tuesday after 126 Labour MPs tried to derail plans.
But they are braced for a significant rebellion with lefty MPs plotting a fresh bid to try and kill the bill.
“It’s a mutinous atmosphere,” one Labour MP said. “There could be 70 of us still against this legislation.”
A government insider mentioned, “MPs are irate because they sense they’re not being heard. The real question is whether No10 can manage to quell that anger.”
The climbdown over benefits and a U-turn on winter fuel means Chancellor Rachel Reeves must find £4.5billion.
A Labour MP fumed: “We can’t keep making these U-turns every time we make a big decision. It’s so expensive.”
Helen Whately Shadow Pensions Secretary
Every day it becomes clearer that this is a government without a plan and without any idea about how to run the country.
Welfare is one of the most important challenges facing Britain. But still, Keir Starmer has no answers.
The chickens of his deeply incompetent time in office are coming home to roost.
He is being held hostage in Number 10 by the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Having been forced into yet another humiliating U-turn, it is clear he is no longer in control. His authority is completely shot.
That’s because socialist Labour MPs don’t believe in lower spending. Ever since Labour took office, they have been itching to spend more.
From day one, they handed out billion-pound bungs to the union barons who bankroll their party.
However, this isn’t what the current situation demands. Following the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of individuals relying on the welfare state, and it’s approaching a critical stage.
With 2,000 people being signed off work for good a day, spending on sickness benefits is set to rise to £100 billion by 2030. We cannot afford to support a country the size of Panama on benefits.
But even so, this week’s omnishambles makes clear Labour MPs are not comfortable with the tighter spending this desperate situation requires.
Labour’s changes would have seen this dented by £5 billion.
It sounds like a lot, but in the context of £100 billion it is a drop in the ocean. We need our government to be a lot more ambitious on welfare spending, not less.
What we need is a focus on getting young people into work. Labour has made that harder too, by destroying jobs and opportunities for people across the country.
If they can’t even deliver this paltry plan paltry for savings from a spiralling welfare bill, we don’t have a chance. Britain deserves better.
Diane Abbott said Sir Keir should be more like Tony Blair and take the left seriously.
In a sign of more rows to come, she told BBC Radio 4: “Starmer and his people thought they could dismiss Labour MPs, well they know differently now.”
In a speech to Welsh Labour on Saturday the PM said fixing the “broken” welfare system must be done in a “Labour way”.
