Morgan McSweeney has resigned, which felt inevitable but is still a shock to the government and to SW1 in general. His closeness to Peter Mandelson and his role in promoting him for the ambassadorship in Washington has been exposed as a grave error – though not, I think, one which was as predictable as everyone now claims.

In his dignified resignation statement, McSweeney writes: ‘When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice. In public life responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.’

The problem is that McSweeney was not the only one advising on Mandelson. Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, and Oliver Robbins, the foreign office permanent secretary, were also part of that decision. More importantly, advisers advise and ministers decide. A senior Labour figure who just contacted me said: ‘If Morgan has resigned they should all resign. The advisers should go, not because they gave bad advice, but because they are all implicated in a catastrophic decision. The prime minister did something worse, he made the decision and there is now no purpose to his premiership.’

Morgan is one of the half dozen best political minds I’ve come across in 25 years of writing about politics

This is a ravens-leaving-the-Tower moment. Keir Starmer would never have been Labour leader or prime minister without McSweeney’s counsel and political judgement. He is far from blameless in what has gone wrong since July 2024, but it remains the case that he has always been the person at the top of Downing Street who has done most to try to get Labour to come to terms with the views of the people they seek to serve. Many Labour folk give the impression they would rather change the electorate than meet them where they are.

McSweeney was probably right to resign given the depth of hatred he has engendered in the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), but I doubt even he thinks this is the sacrifice that will save Starmer. In many important ways, even if he could not compensate for Starmer’s many weaknesses, it was McSweeney who prevented even worse decisions from being taken.

Speaking personally, he is one of the half dozen best political minds I’ve come across in 25 years of writing about politics – a rare person who was good with polling and........

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