Keir Starmer came to power on the back of ‘a deliberate and calculated act of internal political sabotage’, according to a new book on the party think tank behind his leadership. It reveals, says ERNIE JACQUES, ‘a secretive, deceptive campaign to dismantle the Labour left and extinguish social democratic principles’.
Investigative journalist Paul Holden’s new book, The Fraud, sets out to provide a powerful and compelling exposé of the politicians, staffers, associates and wealthy donors who make up the inner workings of Keir Starmer’s office at Number 10 and the Labour Together think tank founded in 2015 that supported his leadership.
This well-researched book shows how, despite its name, Labour Together was not as a force for unity or broad church politics, but engaged in a clandestine, strategic operation to orchestrate opposition to Jeremy Corbyn, remove him as leader and expel him from the Labour Party.
The group, writes Holden, also sought to neutralise the party’s left, using misinformation, secret meetings, media manipulation, big money donations and crass hypocrisy as it systematically moved to get rid of Corbyn’s supporters and erase his policy agenda.
He describes how Labour Together, set up as a centre-left membership group, soon morphed into a centre-right organisation that attracted donations from wealthy and influential backers, including hedge fund managers, and sought support from influential anti-left politicians hostile to the principles of socialism and social democracy.
Holden identifies two overlapping and interconnected strategic initiatives – the Labour Together Project and the Starmer Project – as central to Starmer’s leadership ambitions, Corbyn’s downfall and the former’s eventual success at the 2024 general election.
The figure at the heart of all these initiatives was Morgan McSweeney, now facing intense public scrutiny as the prime minister’s chief of staff following alleged briefings about a supposed leadership challenge from health secretary Wes Streeting.
Take over
Alongside McSweeney, figures such Steve Reed MP (now Shadow Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government) were instrumental in re-shaping Labour Together, and undermining Labour members and supporters who did not conform to the new party line.
This, the author asserts, was a deliberate and calculated act of internal political sabotage, a secretive, deceptive campaign to take over and fundamentally change the party, dismantle the Labour left and extinguish the social democratic principles championed under Jeremy Corbyn. Indeed, those involved viewed his progressive policies as an existential threat to Labour.
McSweeney, who became Starmer’s chief adviser, is depicted as the main architect of this ideological shift and of the ‘dirty tricks’ that ensured its dominance. As Labour Together’s director, he is accused in the book of orchestrating smear campaigns against ‘Corbynistas’ within the Parliamentary Labour Party, and across numerous constituencies and local councils, as well as among the wider party membership.
He is also alleged to have manipulated internal party structures and violated electoral law by failing to disclose more than £800,000 in financial donations. Some of these donations, says Holden, subverted transparency rules by funding select constituency offices and backing in-favour prospective MPs, thereby giving wealthy individuals and institutions undue influence.
It is claimed by Holden that party funds were illegitimately and disproportionately allocated for “promotion purposes and social media advertising” to benefit a small group of 17 Labour MPs, including Starmer, in a clear breach of party rules, democratic fairness and ethical behaviour.
As we know, Starmer replaced Corbyn following his election defeat and resignation in 2019, thanks in part to a leadership manifesto that was largely social democratic in intent and not dissimilar to his predecessor’s policies. Many of those ‘10 pledges’ were soon ditched, however, once he was elected, and replaced with a more right-wing agenda that moved policy away from democratic socialism.
Political purge
A key political tool in the purge of Corbyn and his allies was the accusation of antisemitism levelled at left-wingers such as MP Diane Abbott, who lost the Labour whip in 2023 and 2025, and former MP Beth Winter, who was replaced as a 2024 candidate in Wales by a Labour Together appointee.
Meanwhile, many Labour Party members have resigned, especially since the election – some 200,000 according to Labour List in August 2025 – while a recent Survation poll found a further 28% were considering leaving to join Your Party. A significant number of those who remain are said to be unhappy with the government’s performance and the machinations of Number 10, while polls suggest Starmer is one of the most unpopular British prime ministers in history.
Holden’s torrent of detail reveals an operation that is shocking in scale, intensity, longevity and nastiness. The sheer volume of evidence, and the gravity of the actions described, will dismay many members and voters from across the political spectrum.
In attempting some explanation for all this, Holden explicitly and implicitly suggests the well-worn political vices of greed, hubris, personal hate, thirst for power and self-serving ambition. These individual flaws are said to be the drivers behind a pattern of behaviour that has destabilised the Labour left and damaged the party.
But in my view this fails to adequately address the structural and systemic factors that created fertile ground for this Labour faction to operate. His focus on individual malice, for me, obscures the deeper, more worrying institutional rot that allowed these actions to flourish virtually unchecked.
Nevertheless, Holden’s book should be read, if only to ensure that Labour learns the lessons. Whether or not Starmer’s government survives, the party urgently needs to reinforce its internal democratic procedures, and re-establish the basic principles of a broad church social democratic movement, ones of openness, tolerance, mutual respect and pluralism.
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The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, and the Crisis of British Democracy by Paul Holden, is published by OR Books and available here for £20.
