A MACROOM man has become the most senior non-elected politician in the Labour Party in the UK and the second most important person in British government after he was appointed chief of staff earlier this week.
Labour leader Keir Starmer appointed 47-year-old Morgan McSweeney to the role following the resignation of Sue Gray.
Having steered the Labour Party to general election success in July as director of campaigns, his latest appointment is a signal of his importance within the party.
It has been reported that Gray’s resignation came after months of internal rows and infighting with McSweeney, who was the prime minister’s chief political adviser. The fact that she was being paid £170,000 (€203,000), which was more than the prime minister, ruffled some feathers.
Political pundits expect McSweeney to lay down several markers as he takes up his new appointment and help the British government move on from what many saw as a distraction in the day-to-day running of the country.
There was intense interest from the British press as they sought to find out more about Keir’s new right-hand man. Hailing from Codrum just outside Macroom, Morgan’s family roots are in Fine Gael but he took a different political path after studying politics at Middlesex University. He previously attended Macroom’s De Le Salle College.
His father Tim previously said on radio that Morgan got involved in politics in his teenage years but it was only while in college that he got more interested in it and saw that Labour had a better understanding of the Ireland situation.
Morgan’s wife Imogen Walker, is a Labour MP, having been elected in the Hamilton & Clyde Valley constituency in Scotland. The press in Scotland has previously described them as a ‘Labour power couple’. He joined the Labour Party under Tony Blair where he worked in a junior role at the party’s HQ before working for the now environment secretary Steve Reed.
In 2017, he was appointed the director of the think tank, Labour Together, but later left to run Starmer’s leadership bid.
As Labour Party campaign director, he oversaw an overwhelming victory for the party, seeing them return to government after 14 years in opposition.
