One of Keir Starmer’s top aides has resigned after sexually explicit messages about Diane Abbott emerged.
In the latest crisis to hit No10 Paul Ovenden today quit his role as Director of Strategy after the exchanges from 2017 were uncovered.
Mr Ovenden, a former newspaper journalist who began working for Labour in 2014, is a close ally of both the Prime Minister and his under-pressure chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
The Mail understands that Mr Ovenden had exchanged emails with a former colleague in 2017 in which he retold a story about a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ involving Ms Abbott he had overheard.
He then graphically recounted the conversation in which two women described performing sex acts on Ms Abbott, now 71, the veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Mr Ovenden has resigned to avoid becoming ‘a distraction’. It is the latest astonishing turn of events to hit No10 and the beleaguered Prime Minister in the past fortnight.
Sir Keir is already reeling from the resignation of Angela Rayner for underpaying taxes and the sacking late last week of ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson.
Paul Ovenden today quit his role as Director of Strategy in No10 after the emails from 2017 were uncovered.
The Mail understands that Mr Ovenden had exchanged emails with a former colleague in 2017 in which he retold a story about a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ involving Ms Abbott.
Sir Keir is already reeling from the resignation of Angela Rayner for underpaying taxes and the sacking late last week of ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson.
Ms Abbott, who is currently suspended by Labour, is a staunch critic of Sir Keir who today joined disgruntled Labour backbenchers in warning he has until local elections in May to turn around the party’s fortunes.
A Labour source said: ‘Paul Ovenden was the best brain in the Labour Party and the role he played in the landslide election was immeasurable.’
The PM will field questions this afternoon for the first time since the sacking of the US ambassador over extraordinary emails sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
On the eve of Donald Trump‘s state visit, the government benches are seething with fury over the latest example of the premier’s dire judgment.
MPs are openly warning that Sir Keir – who entered No10 with a massive majority just last year – only has months to turn things around.
The May elections have been identified as a make-or-break moment, with fears Nigel Farage could see another huge surge.
However, Sir Keir is facing even more immediate challenges over what was known when about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein. The PM will be out and about unveiling details of a new nuclear power deal with America later.
Left-winger Richard Burgon told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he expects Sir Keir to be ‘gone’ by next summer.
‘Lots of MPs are looking to the elections next May, the opinion polls suggest it’s going to be a complete disaster unfortunately,’ he said.
‘I think it’s inevitable that if May’s elections go as people predict, and the opinion polls predict, then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.
‘It feels like we are years and years into an unpopular government, rather than a year into a government that’s just got rid of the Conservatives. We’re losing votes to the left, we’re going to be losing seats to the right.
‘We face a real threat for the first time in our country’s history of what I would consider to be a far-right extremist government – it’s the Prime Minister’s duty to stop that happening. You can only do that by delivering for people who want real change, and if you can’t do that, then of course, there’s going to have to be change at the very top.’
The MP for Leeds East added: ‘The Prime Minister needs to change course immediately, otherwise, I’m pretty certain he’ll be gone next May as it stands.’
Education Select Committee chair Helen Hayes said that if the May elections were as bad as feared there would have to be ‘questions about the nature of the leadership’.
‘If those elections don’t go well then that will be the time to ask questions… Questions about the nature of the leadership and whether things can continue as they are,’ she said.
Labour rules set a very high bar for removing the leader against their will.
At least 80 MPs must nominate one potential replacement, before a card vote is held at the annual conference on whether there should be a full membership election.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith denied Sir Keir is in the ‘last-chance saloon’.
