Morgan McSweeney has been forced to quit as Downing Street chief of staff as the scandal over Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US despite his links to the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein escalated.
Sir Keir Starmer, who is fighting to save his premiership, has vowed that the agenda he and Mr McSweeney were working on will not change, with a “relentless” focus on the cost of living.
In light of this, Sir Keir has looked internally for a replacement instead of bringing in fresh thinking from outside.
Shortly after the resignation was announced, staff were informed he had turned to Mr McSweeney’s two deputies, Vidhya Alakeson and Jill Cuthbertson, to replace him as the new joint chiefs of staff for the struggling Downing Street operation.
Who are the two women tasked with righting the course of Sir Keir’s administration?
Vidhya Alakeson
Vidhya Alakeson, 49, was political director for Keir Starmer when he was leader of the opposition and has long been one of his most trusted deputies.
She previously worked for the influential Resolution Foundation thinktank, which has been significant in shaping Labour’s at times faltering economic policy.
She also spent time running Power of Change as chief executive. The organisation was a National Lottery Community Fund backed trust with the goal to “strengthen communities through community business”, which it believes has the power to “tackle some of society’s biggest challenges at a local level” including climate change, digital transformation and social inequalities.
She holds degrees from Oxford University and LSE, and was awarded an OBE in 2021.
Ms Alakeson was also privately educated at Wimbledon High School for girls.
Jill Cuthbertson
Jill Cuthbertson played a significant role in the failed referendum campaign to keep the UK in the EU in 2016 as events manager for Britain Stronger in Europe.
She is a long time aide of Sir Keir’s, having previously been the director of his private office until the election 2024, when she was handed the job as director of government relations.
She held this post for a short period before being promoted to joint deputy chief of staff after Sue Gray was forced out as chief of staff and replaced by Mr McSweeney.
Previously, Ms Cuthbertson worked as a private secretary to Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown and before that Cherie Blair.
An experienced Labour Party government insider, she was Mr Brown’s political office manager when he was prime minister.
Ms Cuthbertson married to Mo Hussein, a former special adviser to Tory home secretary Amber Rudd in 2019. They met while working on the Remain campaign during the referendum.
