If MI5 are worried about threats to democracy, they should start with Morgan McSweeney

MI5 head Sir David McCallum issued a stern warning Monday 13 October. New advice from the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) said politicians and staff should be wary of foreign interference in democracy. We have two words for McCallum: Morgan McSweeney.

MI5: say what?

The guidance is meant to explain:

How state backed actors and their proxies attempt to manipulate, discredit or secretly gather information on political figures at all levels.

This is done often through subtle and deceptive means that blur the line between legitimate engagement and malign activity.

McCallum said:

When foreign states steal vital UK information or manipulate our democratic processes they don’t just damage our security in the short-term, they erode the foundations of our sovereignty and ability to protect our citizens’ interests. Everyone reading this guidance cares deeply about the role they play in UK democracy. Take action today to protect it – and yourself.

You can read the full advice here.

What the head of Britain’s internal security wing did not say is just as significant. With everything that’s going on it feels like there are some serious gaps in the advice.

Morgan McSweeney’s scam

While we’re on the topic of threats to democracy, let’s talk about the major scandal we’re serialising. By that we mean hard evidence that our current Labour government is the product of a scam by a secretive cabal of authoritarians: Labour Together.

Specifically, we mean the secret project by Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and others to guarantee Jeremy Corbyn’s reformist left agenda never got into power. You can read parts one and two of our serialisation of Paul Holden’s new book The Fraud now.

From the off, this project to subvert British democracy was carried out in the utmost secrecy:

McSweeney was clear in his briefing that the conspiracy to destroy Corbynism would have to be conducted in utmost secrecy. Indeed, McSweeney’s SWOT analysis identified the discovery of the true work of the Labour Together Project as one of the greatest threats it faced.

Their aim from 2017 was to become “the vehicle through which McSweeney would run a “secret” campaign to “seize” the Labour Party back from its ascendant left wing”.

Killing the story

This process, by its very nature, involved attacks on another key democratic institution: the press. Specifically, the Canary.

This is a fact we were reporting as far back as 2020:

On 2 August 2019, an anonymous internet campaign named Stop Funding Fake News (SFFN) celebrated its apparent success in downsizing The Canary. For six months, SFFN had been trying to demonetise The Canary by lobbying companies to remove advertisements from its website.

Starmer ultimately won the election by lying to voting members that he was the left-wing successor to Jeremy Corbyn. In reality, his win was the result of an shadowy, off-the-books operation at least as complex as something MI5 itself might run. A project which was years in the making.

As Holden recounts:

Starmer could launch his candidacy so quickly thanks to years of preparation largely outside the public eye. This work was done by a political project operating through an organisation called Labour Together.

The project had likely started preparing for a leadership contest before Starmer was even aware of its existence.

Let’s be clear here. Iran, Russia and China – all named in the MI5 advice – have an interest in shaping British politics, just as the UK seeks to shape theirs. We may never know the full degree to which any of these actors are enjoying success.

We do know is the 2019 election – the most important for generations – was hijacked by an enemy within. A shadow party within Labour who put their hard-right ideological leanings above democracy so they alone could decide the future of the country. And it worked.

Featured image via the Canary