American Thinker

by J.R. Dunn

    The burgeoning Epstein scandal has taken down one of the major foreign adversaries of both AT and international freedom of expression in general.

    Until just two weeks ago, Morgan McSweeney was a political strategist for the British Labour Party, as well as PM Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. As such, he was one of the most powerful and influential figures on the British Left. On February 8, he was forced to resign due to his connections to Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the U.S. Mandelson was arrested in London yesterday on suspicion of misconduct in public office following the exposure of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

    Morgan McSweeney, originally Irish, became involved with the Labour Party in the late 1990s. For many years, he worked as an organizer and campaigner for the party, steadily working his way up until he reached the top of the heap in the 2020s. McSweeney was widely credited with turning the party around after the Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitism debacle, along with positioning Starmer as the new party leader. In 2024, he ranked as the most influential English leftist in a New Statesman poll. In July of that year, he was appointed Starmer’s Head of Political Strategy and in October became chief of staff.

    While all this was going on, McSweeney was also acting in a self-appointed role as Lord Chief Censor for the UK and the World at Large. This was accomplished by means of an outfit called Labour Together, an NGO founded to spearhead party reform, among other agendas. If McSweeney didn’t actually found Labour Together, he certainly played a key role, being listed as both company secretary and managing director in various sources.

    Labour Together, in turn, sponsored two other outfits, Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN) and Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Although another party, Imran Ahmed, claimed credit for founding these organizations, emails published by Matt Taibbi, among others, make it clear that McSweeney was instrumental in setting up both. The mission of both SFFN and CCDH was, quite simply, censorship.

    The funding was reportedly derived from Labour Together without anybody being quite aware that it was happening. The first targets were to be supporters of Brexit, Nigel Farage, and Reform UK. On this side of the pond, the major target was Breitbart, though a number of other outlets also lined up -- prominent among them none other than American Thinker.

    SFFN’s primary tactic was to target advertisers, posing as “concerned citizens” who contacted companies to claim that they were advertising on “alt-right” and ‘neo-Nazi’ sites. The goal was to strip the sites of revenue, and in this, they had some success.

    It happened that Labour Together was accused of accepting illegal contributions, some £739,000, that were used in illegitimate electoral activity not reported to the UK Electoral Commission. In September 2021, Labour Together was sanctioned and fined £14,250.

    As we know, this did nothing to slow down Morgan McSweeney. Eventually, SFFN was folded into or taken over by Imran Ahmed’s Center for Countering Digital Hate – the details are unclear. The de facto censorship continued.

    Enter Peter Mandelson. In September of last year, he was dismissed as U.S. ambassador after his connections with Epstein were revealed. Mandelson, who had referred to Epstein as his “best pal,” had continued the relationship even after Epstein’s first conviction in 2008, staying at the trafficker’s NYC townhouse and taking numerous trips on his private jet.

    McSweeney was friendly with Mandelson and had arranged for him to become Washington ambassador even though he was aware of the Epstein connection. He was also reported to have interfered in Mandelson’s security vetting before the appointment was made.

    When the Epstein accusations first arose, McSweeney defended Mandelson long after it was prudent, and even tried to persuade colleagues to back him up.

    When McSweeney began taking fire, Keir Starmer at first defended him as a crucial member of his staff, even though a number of Labour politicians were calling for his head, characterizing the Mandelson/Epstein crisis as only the latest in a long series of missteps involving what they called factionalism and cliquishness on McSweeney’s part.

    In a typical political move, Starmer in the first week of February doubled down in his defense: “Morgan McSweeney is an essential part of my team. He helped me change the Labour party and win an election. Of course I have confidence in him. Whatever is slung across this Dispatch Box, I do not think it is right for the Cabinet Secretary to be denigrated in that way, or to suggest that he would be involved in a cover-up.” Only days later, McSweeney at last resigned.

Thus to all enemies of the Thinker. This is quite a blow for the Labour Party, for Keir Starmer, and of course for McSweeney himself. But these types have a knack for landing on their feet, and there’s no such thing as shame on the Left. It’s likely that Starmer will soon follow him, a great relief for the people of the UK. As for Epstein, he’s the gift that keeps on giving. Will the Left ever wise up to that?