CLAIMS that Morgan McSweeney lied about his stolen phone are “far-fetched”, Sir Keir Starmer insisted today.
The PM hit out at suggestions that his former chief of staff deliberately ditched the device to avoid revealing WhatsApp messages with Lord Peter Mandelson.
In October 2025, Mr McSweeney told police his phone had been snatched in London.
The missing handset means exchanges between the PM’s former right-hand man and the ex-ambassador to the US will never be uncovered in the Mandelson files.
Critics argue the timing of the robbery, roughly a month after the Labour grandee was sacked, looks too convenient.
Mr McSweeney and Lord Mandelson were widely known to share a close relationship.
Labour MP Karl Turner said: “I don’t believe McSwindle had his iPhone stolen.”
Hitting back at claims of foul play, Sir Keir said: “The phone was stolen.
“It was reported to the police. There’s a transcript of the call in which Morgan McSweeney gives his name, his date of birth, the details of the phone, and the police confirm that it was reported.
“Unfortunately, there are thefts like this. It was stolen. It was reported at the time, the police have acknowledged and confirmed that. That is what happened.”
He added: “The idea that somehow everybody could have seen that sometime in the future there’d be a request over the phone is, to my mind, a little bit far-fetched.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described the incident as a “cock-up rather than conspiracy”, while No10 stress the theft happened “months before” MPs forced the Sir Keir to release correspondence linked to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s top diplomat.
MPs moved in February to compel the publication of tens of thousands of documents amid questions over what was known about the peer’s links to paedo financier Jeffrey Epstein before he was handed the Washington role.
Mr McSweeney quit Downing Street last month, with many blaming him for driving the appointment.
Concerns have also been raised over the fact that the PM’s then top aide failed to back up his phone, leading to the loss of the correspondence.
Police have taken the unusual step of releasing a transcript of Mr McSweeney’s 999 call reporting the theft.
During the call, he gives his name, a personal email address and a home address outside London, and says the device is a Government phone which he had asked his office to track.
The Met mistakenly logged the theft as taking place in east London rather than Westminster after Mr McSweeney wrongly gave his location as Belgrave Street instead of Belgrave Road during the October 20 call.
That error meant officers checked the wrong CCTV and concluded there were no realistic lines of inquiry to pursue.
