McSweeney’s admin error excuse? ‘Eh, good enough’ says Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission today announced that Morgan McSweeney – Starmer’s chief of staff – will not face a renewed investigation into undeclared donations to his think tank, Labour Together.

Morgan McSweeney off the hook

The watchdog previously fined Labour Together over £14k for undeclared donations back in 2021. The think tank was late to announce over £730k of donations, blaming an “admin error”.

However, Conservatives called for a new investigation after they published a leaked email between a Labour lawyer and McSweeney’s organisation. McSweeney held that the parliamentary regulator told him he didn’t need to declare his donations. However, the leaked email stated that neither Labour nor the Electoral Commission had any record of this exchange. Crucially, it also specifically advised Labour Together to blame an “admin error”.

Starmer’s political opponents also raised questions around whether the Labour Party should have declared McSweeney’s help as a donation. For its part, Labour maintained that it paid McSweeney a salary, rather than him donating his time.

As it turns out though, the Commission clearly didn’t think this little tidbit was worthy of their oversight.

Whitewash

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said of the McSweeney saga:

We investigated the late reporting of donations by Labour Together and published our findings in 2021.

We determined multiple offences including those relating to the late reporting of donations with a cumulative value of £739,492, as well as the failure to appoint a responsible person.

The fine was significant and reflects the seriousness of the offences determined, for which no reasonable excuse was put forward.

Earlier this week the Conservative Party wrote to us with concerns that other offences had been committed. We have thoroughly reviewed this information and found no evidence of any other potential offences. We are confident that the initial determination and sanction were appropriate.

We are therefore not reopening the investigation.

Conservative chair Ken Hollinrake reacted:

It is clear that Morgan McSweeney deceived the Electoral Commission but has dodged a criminal offence on a technicality. This loophole won’t wash.

The Conservatives uncovered clear evidence of McSweeney’s industrial-scale cover-up of a slush fund used to install Keir Starmer as Labour leader. Despite the denials of Labour and nothing-to-see-here Keir, it is clear that the prime minister’s chief of staff still has very serious questions to answer.

Loathe though I am to agree with a Tory, I really must ask – if all it takes to get away from an investigation scot-free is for a lawyer to advise you to say “oopsy, forgot, sorry”, how on Earth has this toothless watchdog ever managed to catch any politician out before?

Featured image via the Canary