When Morgan McSweeney met with special advisers on Tuesday night, they say he delivered an “excellent” speech that united troops weeks later.
A source in a government department said discussions after the meeting concerned “Morgan's appearance.”
“He admitted that being a spy was more like a nightmare than a dream job. It all seemed to go down well, but of course they want action, not just words.”
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Labor's dissatisfaction with special advisers – political appointees who support ministers – over their pay was just one of the rows that ended Sue Gray's fallthe former party investigator whom Sir Keir had invested so much personal capital in hiring.
She is now Sir Keir's special envoy to nations and regions where not only is she expected to lose the £170,000 pay package she enjoyed – which was leaked to the media in a successful attempt to harm her politically – but the unparalleled access she enjoyed to the Prime Minister.
For some, McSweeney's reappointment as chief of staff is the precise bailout the party needed after losing its first 100 days in office distorted by quarrels over freebies and donationswhich caused Sir Keir's personal ratings to plummet.
“Morgan is a much more political person with a vision for where the country should go and what we should do,” one government source said. “It's wrong when people say Keir isn't like that – it just hasn't been translated correctly.”
The source admitted that while not all problems will be solved “overnight,” under McSweeney, “there will be a lot more access to downtown.”
“Look how he changed the Labor Party. Morgan is a total workaholic who will create a greater sense of direction.”
Another supporter simply said, “She will be a force for good without a doubt.”
To other, more skeptical observers, Ms Gray's public humiliation provided an opportune opportunity for Mr McSweeney to once again portray himself as the savior of the Labor Party and the fixer of all its problems – problems he had allowed to fester while his rival was clearly trying to destroy them.
“You could criticize Sue's management style, you could say she didn't make it easy to get to Keir, you could say she took on too many things which led to a backlog, and you could say she had enemies in the civil service – but I said all that about anyone on this position,” one senior Whitehall official told Sky News.
“Morgan was subtly spicing things up. He let everything go wrong so he could blame Sue and cure her.”
'He will impose himself on Whitehall'
The image that emerges of Mr McSweeney is that of someone who can get things done – as evidenced by his ability to bring Labor back into the worst-ever electoral defeat in 2019
However, so far this ability has only been truly tested within party structures, not government structures.
Critics point out that McSweeney previously served as chief of staff when Labor was in opposition and lost the Hartlepool by-election – a moment so devastating for the party that Sir Keir himself considered resigning.
McSweeney was then reassigned to the position of campaign director, a position he held until and throughout the election.
“Ultimately, Morgan was removed as chief of staff because he couldn't run the store,” one source said, saying he had difficulty coping with the challenges ahead, managing individual employees and dealing with day-to-day logistics.
McSweeney goes to Downing Street on the day of President Zelensky's visit to the UK.
“The closest he came to running the administration was Lambeth local government,” they said, referring to his role in London local government, where he won praise for defeating the far left.
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McSweeney's supporters dispute the notion that he was demoted from his position as chief of staff, saying it was only because he was needed to clean up the party's headquarters.
They believe that he will ultimately be able to rebuild the government the way he wants, just as he did with the party.
“Morgan knows what she's doing. He was always gathering information from people and places, but ultimately the decisions he made were his own,” said one senior Labor source.
“He towers over the party organization and deserves it – the question is, does he have enough knowledge of the wiring and machinery of Whitehall?”
They added: “I suppose he will reform the environment around him rather than adapt to it and become someone he is not. He will try to impose himself on this environment and make it an environment in which he can thrive.”
The chief of staff must be “indistinguishable” from the prime minister
According to Alex Thomas, program director of the Institute of Government Advisors and former director of the Civil Service, the role of the chief of staff is “to synthesize the political and the official.”
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“You're the last person in the room who can make really important policy decisions and give all kinds of advice, and you strengthen the prime minister's position across Whitehall and across the government,” he told Sky News.
“Chiefs of Staff must be indistinguishable from the Prime Minister.”
The challenge previous chiefs of staff have faced, he said, is finding the right balance between “shaking things up, making reforms and bringing people along.”
McSweeney can keep his finger on the pulse of his tribe within the party, but it may prove more difficult to bind together an entire Labor coalition – which is much more unwieldy.
In her new position, Ms Gray could well build her own rival power base of metro mayors, which could prove embarrassing for Mr McSweeney if Whitehall's main goals – for example, cutting public spending or limiting the offer of workers' rights – clashed with demographic needs beyond Westminster.
McSweeney's strength in being deemed to have successfully displaced Ms. Gray has drawn comparisons with Dominic CummingsBoris Johnson's overbearing chief of staff who ultimately damaged his boss by pursuing his own agenda and alienating the wider party.
Some insiders fear that Ms. Gray's treatment – whatever mistakes or missteps she may have made on the job – could be a harbinger of their next target.
“The Morgan faction has shown that when they turn fire on you, they will prevail,” one source said.
“When Keir survives, once he's used to them, they'll tell him his time is up.”
