Keir Starmer is the "most Irish Englishman" ever seen in British politics, a columnist in The Times newspaper declared last year, as the likely next UK prime minister has surrounded himself with Ireland-savvy advisers and aides.
Despite having no known Irish connections within his own family, Starmer has developed strong links to Ireland throughout his life and career as a barrister, prosecutor, and leader of Britain's main opposition party.
Starmer spent five years as a human rights adviser to the PSNI in the North, and has suggested he would lean on this experience to improve relations with the Irish Government if Labour wins the UK general election on July 4th.
Indeed, he liked the North so much that he came back with his wife on holiday. “After we were married, my wife and I took our first holiday here, because I wanted to show her Northern Ireland, the people and communities that I’d met,” he told an audience in Belfast last year. “I was in love with this island and that love has stayed with me.”
After the tragic Creeslough explosion in Co Donegal, he told the House of Commons: “Donegal is a special place to me and my family.” He plays five-a-side football in that county’s GAA jersey.
And several of Starmer's key advisers and strategists have strong Irish links. Here are some of them:
Morgan McSweeney – Campaign manager
Cork-born Morgan McSweeney is Keir Starmer's closest aide and will play a central role if Labour enters government.
Described by the British media as an "elections guru" and "a workaholic Irishman", McSweeney (47) grew up in the townland of Codrum, just outside Macroom in Co Cork. He is the son of Carmel and Timmy McSweeney, who for years has been prominent in Macroom GAA club.
His family has strong Fine Gael connections – his aunt Evelyn McSweeney was a Fine Gael councillor, and his first cousin Clare Mungovan was one of former taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s top advisers.
McSweeney is credited with masterminding Starmer’s leadership win in 2020. He has also become a hate-figure for some on the left of the party as he spearheaded a break from the policies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He lives with his family in Lanark, a town south of Glasgow in Scotland. His wife, Imogen Walker, is a Labour candidate in the Scottish seat of Hamilton and Clyde Valley, so the pair will emerge as a formidable power couple if she wins.
Sue Gray – Chief of staff
Sue Gray became a household name in Britain when, in her previous role as a senior civil servant, she investigated the lockdown-busting parties in Boris Johnson’s government.
The skills required for such a role were honed in a location far removed from Westminster, when Gray and her country and western singer husband Bill Conlon bought and ran a pub in Newry, Co Down, at the height of the Troubles in the late 1980s.
During that time, Gray once faced down IRA paramilitaries who attempted to hijack her car, bluntly refusing to exit her vehicle when they ordered her to do so, friends told the Belfast Telegraph.
Gray’s parents left Ireland for Britain in the 1950s. She was one of a large Catholic family of seven children, born to a mother from Kilmeaden in Waterford and a father from Belcoo in Fermanagh. She grew up in Tottenham, London.
Now in her mid-60s, Gray had a long career in the UK civil service before being recruited by Starmer in 2023 to prepare Labour for government. Some politicians that she has dealt with in the past have gone so far as to suggest the former publican is the “real leader” of the UK.
According to her civil service biography, Gray started working for the Cabinet Office in the late 1990s following her stint behind the bar in Newry during a “career break”.
After her time as head of ethics in the Cabinet Office, she served as the permanent secretary of the Department of Finance in Stormont from 2018 to 2021.
She reportedly refused to have a leaving do when she left the Belfast office, to adhere to the lockdown rules.
After May 2021, she was back in the Cabinet Office as second permanent secretary with responsibilities in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Her son, Liam Conlon, chairs Labour’s Irish Society and is standing as Labour’s candidate to become the MP for the new southeast London constituency of Beckenham and Penge.
Pat McFadden – MP and national campaign coordinator
Pat McFadden was born in Glasgow to gaeilgeoir parents from the townland of Dunmore near Falcarragh in Co Donegal. He is known to return to Falcarragh each year on holiday.
He is a veteran of Tony Blair’s era in government, having been at the centre of power throughout Labour’s last period in office. The New Statesman described McFadden as a “behind-the-scenes operator” for Labour moderates “who has accumulated extraordinary power” over policy and strategy.
Like Gray, McFadden is one of seven children in an Irish-Catholic family that migrated to Britain during the 1950s.
If Labour wins the election, McFadden is expected to take ministerial responsibility for the Cabinet Office. He would also be expected to be among the top ministerial team who would lead cabinet decision-making.
Matthew Doyle – Director of communications
Matthew Doyle is Labour’s director of communications. He previously worked for former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Doyle’s grandparents came from Sligo – his cousins still run a business in Sligo town centre – and he is a past head of the Labour Irish society.
Claire Tighe – London councillor and liaison with mayors
Mayo woman Claire Tighe has a key role in Starmer’s office as his official liaison with the party’s directly elected mayors, including London's Sadiq Khan and Manchester's Andy Burnham.
A Labour councillor in the west London district of Ealing where she was born, Tighe grew up in Ballycastle, on Mayo’s north coast above Ballina. She returned to London to work in politics after college.
