Keir Starmer’s top aide Morgan McSweeney tried to set up a No. 10 think tank – POLITICO

LONDON — A top aide to ex-Prime Minister Keir Starmer wanted the government to set up a think tank that would sit outside the usual scrutiny which applies to 10 Downing Street, he told a private event Tuesday.

Morgan McSweeney came to believe it was “impossible” for No. 10 to be strategic and moved to create a new “function that sits outside government,” he told an audience in central London. POLITICO obtained a recording of his comments at the event, from which journalists were barred.

“One of the things that I was working on when I was leaving No. 10, and I would have kept working on this, is that I think it’s impossible for No. 10 to be strategic,” said McSweeney, who resigned in February over his role in Starmer’s doomed decision to make Peter Mandelson Britain’s ambassador to the U.S.