Are Morgan McSweeney's enemies serving up their revenge cold?

“I don’t believe McSwindle had his iPhone stolen,” wrote Karl Turner, Labour MP for East Hull on X this week, adding a shrugging emoji to his post.

The MP, on Labour’s soft left, was referring to the news that McSweeney, former chief of staff to Keir Starmer, reported his phone as stolen last year. The news has emerged since the government promised to comply with a demand from MPs to publish all messages relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

McSweeney was an ally of Mandelson, who was given the Washington DC job despite his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and had pushed for the peer’s appointment to the role.

His work phone was reported stolen in October, a month after Mandelson was sacked – but several months before MPs demanded the publication of relevant messages through a procedure known as a “humble address”. Police have released a transcript of McSweeney’s 999 call reporting the theft.

Suggested Reading

But that has not stopped journalists like the Mail On Sunday’s Dan ‘Beergate’ Hodges and enemies of McSweeney on both sides of the House from casting doubt on the mercurial Machiavellian’s tale. When the political commentator Matthew Stadlen told Turner – who always refers to McSweeney as McSwindle – to “come on” as “I’ve never met McSweeney, but that’s a very serious allegation”, Turner replied: “Honest believe, Matt.”

“It’s [sic] smacks of the liar Johnson defence of ‘lost all my WhatsApp messages’. We mustn’t take the public for fools. And I am afraid this smacks of too convenient by far. I won’t do it. I will say what I actually think. And I don’t believe it. End of!”.

Harsh allegations indeed! And if it were true, might McSweeney himself be investigated for wasting police time? Knowingly making false reports or giving false information to police, causing them to waste resources, can incur penalties including up to six months in prison, a fine or a £90 fixed penalty notice.

And if it weren’t true, what could be prompting the likes of Turner to make such claims? Turner is an ally of Louise Haigh, Starmer’s first transport secretary, who was forced to resign in 2024 after it emerged that Haigh had pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation relating to misleading police in 2014.

Allies noted that it was convenient for McSweeney, who was said to have pushed for Haigh’s resignation as part of removing the soft-left barnacles from Starmer’s cabinet boat. Ironically, Haigh’s case involved… a stolen mobile phone. Is revenge being served cold?