The danger in Labour’s briefing battle

Numbers alone stack the deck against Labour, but this is heightened by the fact that left-leaning papers are typically happier to attack their ‘own’ side than their right wing counterparts – few within Labour would describe the Guardian as a cheerleader for its efforts. All of which means that Labour expects negative headlines while it’s in government, and a short political honeymoon.

But there is something peculiar about the drip of stories coming out in the early days of Keir Starmer’s Number 10 – the briefing is almost certainly coming from inside the house.

Last weekend, the Sunday Times splashed on the peculiar tale of a major Labour donor apparently having been given a pass for 10 Downing Street, a genuine rarity that the government has failed to offer much of an explanation for.

While it’s not a scandal on the level of Partygate or latter-day Tory backscratching, the visual similarity to cash-for-access scandals of the past is hardly a good start for a new government. As the Sunday Times story wondered – who had given out the pass, and why did they think it was a good idea?

Given the donor in question, Lord Waheed Alli, reportedly used the pass to host a garden party thanking supporters (and donors) shortly after the election, the obvious question is whether someone on Labour’s campaign team – led by the high-profile Starmer aide Morgan McSweeney – was behind the decision in question.

But McSweeney is not the only aide to find his judgement (or that of his team) hitting the newspapers. Former senior civil servant Sue Gray is now Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, and she has made it into the newspapers on several occasions in recent weeks.

Questions have been raised over her intervention over a row about securing funding for a stadium in Northern Ireland, while other stories have criticised her role as a gatekeeper, deciding who does or does not have access to the prime minister.

Gray is a Whitehall veteran who is no stranger to controversies. But while she was not exactly a popular figure with the media (she played a major role in limiting Freedom of Information enquiries, especially from journalists), in her roles overseeing ethics from the Cabinet Office was widely regarded as a very straight shooter, with a serious concern for propriety. Despite being involved in contentious cases, direct briefings against her in her old role were unusual, though her spat with outgoing cabinet secretary Simon Case was hardly a secret.

Now she has re-entered the heart of government as a Labour special advisor, she is appearing in the newspapers far more frequently. McSweeney is not appearing quite as often, but his name is popping up too, or else being alluded to in ways that are spotted by those within the Westminster bubble.

Only the journalists behind each story know who is actually briefing, and even they might not know why – or whether the person they speak with is doing it because it’s their own idea, or as a favour to someone else. Reporters don’t tell other reporters their sources (and rightly so).

That two of Keir Starmer’s aides keep appearing in the news alongside embarrassing leaks that could build up a damaging picture of a new government, though, does not seem like a coincidence.

Labour MPs, staffers and outriders alike are openly discussing whether a low-level civil war that began in Starmer’s office as leader of the opposition is spilling over into Downing Street. Rightly or wrongly, it is widely believed that there is an ongoing briefing war between different factions vying for Starmer’s attention.

No. 10 is going to have to do something to end those rumours. Someone – and given that the different stories leaked damage different people, it’s almost certainly more than one person – is talking to the media, and doesn’t care much if it causes wider damage to trust in the government.

Without the ability to have candid conversations within No. 10 (within reason, as some things will always leak out), its ability to effectively govern the country diminishes rapidly. There needs to be at least some trust between the core team. The wider Labour Party needs to have the impression the centre is trying to run the country rather than fight one another.

The idea cannot take hold that voting out the Conservatives has simply replaced a circular firing squad in blue rosettes with one wearing red. Starmer’s government is still young and still has the benefit of the doubt, but the public are cynical about politics and fed up with scandal.

As Starmer says of the country’s finances, the briefing battle will almost certainly get worse before it gets better. But he will need to get a grip on his team or else rumours of its division will dog his premiership. When office politics spill out into the media, it usually ends in the departure of at least one involved party.

Unless this bout of increasingly public infighting is nipped in the bud, this one will be no different.