8 February 2026

Starmer appoints two joint acting chiefs of staff

Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson replace Morgan McSweeney

Photo by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

Keir Starmer has appointed his two current deputy chiefs of staff as joint acting chiefs of staff in Number 10, following the news of Morgan McSweeney’s resignation. One Number 10 insider says they suspect the appointments will be made permanent in the coming days, but were announced as “acting” given the need to appoint a replacement for McSweeney quickly.

Vidhya Alakeson, as deputy chief of staff, has been in charge of policy and delivery within Downing Street for the past 16 or so months. Formerly Starmer’s director of external relations, she managed Labour’s relationships with business and other stakeholders in opposition, having joined his team in 2022.

She divides opinion inside Number 10. While one insider describes her as “the best of the best”, another says she “blows in the wind and is completely incapable of making decisions and sticking to them.”

Starmer’s other appointment to the role, Jill Cuthbertson, is described by one insider as a “more unifying figure” than Alakeson. A longstanding Labour adviser, she served as private secretary to both Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband before working for Starmer. “No one can do high-stakes political logistics like Jill,” one insider says.

The reaction inside Labour to the appointments has been something of a collective shrug. Cuthbertson and Alakeson will be safe pairs of hands to run Starmer’s Downing Street operation in a time of high turbulence. For that reason, it seems a wise decision to many involved.

But the appointment of two of McSweeney’s deputies also represents continuity when many in the Labour party have been clamouring for change. “They’re both very talented, but what a waste,” one minister said. “This was a wasted last chance to properly reset the narrative with the PLP [parliamentary Labour party].” Another insider joked that it spoke of Starmer’s inability to choose. “‘Do you want Vidhya or Jill?’ ‘Yes.'” they quipped.

As Starmer battles to save his premiership in the wider fall out of the Mandelson scandal, the decision around who replaces McSweeney is a very small part of the challenge he faces. Yet for precisely that reason, some still see it as a missed opportunity to shore up his support from Labour MPs and signal to them that things are changing in his Number 10 operation.