Starmer’s chief of staff used ‘false excuse’ for failing to declare donations to his former thinktank, Conservatives claim
The Conservatives have called for an investigation into Keir Starmer’s beleaguered chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, after allegations he tried to mislead the elections watchdog over donations to a Labour thinktank he ran while in opposition.
The organisation, Labour Together, was fined £14,250 by the Electoral Commission in 2021 over its handling of almost £740,000 of donations. The Tories have claimed that it used a “false excuse” of administrative errors.
They have now released a leaked email from Labour lawyer Gerald Shamash, in which he advised McSweeney to drop his claim that he had been told he did not have to declare the donations, adding that he hoped to minimise publicity for the rule breach.
“My advice, but it is in practice the only realistic route, we are being and have to be seen as transparent as possible,” Shamash wrote. “The amounts of the late reported donations is £739,492 and there are, in my view, no easy way to explain how Labour Together finds itself in this situation.
