One of Keir Starmer’s most senior aides has embarrassingly quit after sexually explicit messages about Diane Abbott emerged.
Paul Ovenden has resigned his role as Director of Strategy over an incident in 2017 in which he retold a story about a game of “shag, marry, kill” involving Abbott, when she was shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn.
It marks the latest scandal to hit Keir Starmer’s wobbly leadership as a Left-wing Labour MP, Richard Burgon, said it is “inevitable” that the PM will have to go if the party performs as badly in 2026 local elections as polling suggests.
Ovenden told ITV News he had been involved in “a silly conversation” eight years ago.
“Before summer, I had announced to some of my colleagues my intention to leave government,” he said.
“Though the messages long pre-date my current employment and relationship with the Prime Minister, I’ve brought forward my resignation to avoid distracting from the vital work this government is doing to positively change people’s lives.
“As an advisor, my duty is to protect the reputation of the prime minister and his government.”
“While it is chilling that a private conversation from nearly a decade ago can do this sort of damage, I am also truly, deeply sorry for it and the hurt it will cause,” he added.
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.”
A government source told Guido Fawkes: “Paul was one of the most important architects of last year’s landslide election and Keir has relied on him heavily every day since. His loss to the project is monumental”.
Left-winger Richard Burgon told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he expects Starmer to be “gone” by next summer.
He said: “There’ll be elections in the Scottish Parliament, elections in the Welsh Senedd, elections in London, elections right across the country.
“And the opinion polls at the moment suggest that as it stands it’s going to be a disaster. And I think it is inevitable that if May’s elections go as people predict and as the opinion polls predict, then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.”
Many Left-wing Labour MPs would back current Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham for leader, it has been reported.