Sir Keir Starmer’s former top aide, Morgan McSweeney, has admitted that the Labour Party was inadequately prepared for assuming power ahead of the general election.
This direct criticism comes in his first media interview since leaving his senior roles.
Speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, Mr McSweeney, who served as Downing Street chief of staff and a senior Labour strategist, reflected on the party's turbulent two years in office, which concluded with Sir Keir’s resignation as Prime Minister.
He stated: "I think that we didn’t prepare enough for what kind of world we were going to be in."
Mr McSweeney elaborated on the challenges, suggesting Labour failed to grasp the contemporary political landscape.
"We are now in a very different era than when Labour was last in government, and I think we didn’t have enough conversations at the top of the party about what that meant, how to prepare for it, what that meant for the state, how the state needed to be reformed, because in lots of ways the state is really out of shape and is unable to deliver for people," he explained.
He added that the public's frustration with broken promises necessitates rapid change: "You have to deliver quite quickly for people for them to see the change quickly, and I think we didn’t come in with enough of a theory about how we would do that, and why that was important."
Previously a private figure during his time in government, with only one other public appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr McSweeney explained his decision to speak out now.
He told the BBC: "I need to move on to a new chapter in my life, and to do that, I need to close the old one, and to make clear that that’s happening."
He expressed his dedication to his past roles, saying: "I loved working for Labour Party and for a Labour Government. It was an incredible privilege."
He acknowledged the inherent invisibility of his previous positions.
"I loved managing election campaigns, and that means that you don’t have a public voice, and you should not be a visible character. That didn’t work out well for me."
Concluding his remarks, he added: "I became more and more visible the longer I stayed in the job, but I thought I needed to become a bit more public to let people know who I am, and to close a chapter on the past."
