As a teenager in 1994, he dropped out of university and went to stay in Sarid, a kibbutz (Jewish colony) originally established on stolen Palestinian land in 1926. It seems apparent that this was a formative experience for the young McSweeney, but little is written about his time in the north of occupied historic Palestine.

One exception to that rule is Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund's account of Starmer's rise to power, Get In. In that book, the journalists from London paper The Times report that "in a factory built by Czech Jews at Sarid, nine miles from Nazareth, the lazy teenager learned to work. He built saw-cutters and grinding wheels. He returned to London not just with a tan but a work ethic."

According to The Jerusalem Post, in that kibbutz and the surrounding Jezreel Valley, McSweeney would have become "closely acquainted with the Hashomer Hatzair," a Zionist settler organization founded in Austria-Hungary in 1913.

According to Israeli general Moshe Dayan, in his infamous 1969 speech about depopulated Palestinian villages no longer existing due to Jewish colonization, "Sarid [arose] in the place of Haneifs ... There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

Who did McSweeney stay with during his Israeli sojourn? Who did he meet?

While researching this article, a former Labour volunteer, "Simon," contacted me and spoke on condition of anonymity. Simon claimed that McSweeney was deliberately inserted into the party and later became Keir Starmer's "handler," presenting compromising material to keep him "in line."

Keir Starmer addresses a Labour Party event in November 2019. (Han Yan Xinhua)

Starmer has arguably gone further than any previous Labour leader in pushing an extreme pro-Israeli narrative in the British political sphere, once announcing that he supports "Zionism without qualification."

For some, McSweeney resignation removes obstacle to eventual downfall of Starmer | The Guardian |

For some Labour MPs, the sight of Keir Starmer accepting the resignation of his long-term consigliere, Morgan McSweeney, encapsulated everything they think is going wrong with the prime minister's leadership.

After days of mounting criticism over McSweeney's role in advocating for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador, the prime minister's chief of staff left Downing Street on Sunday.

But while his departure was welcomed by some of the prime minister's critics, others felt it displayed the kind of political passivity which they say has characterised Starmer's time in office.

"The idea of Morgan being allowed to resign makes the PM look even weaker," one MP said. "He should have sacked him - now he risks going down with Morgan."

McSweeney enjoyed a level of access and power in Downing Street unseen since the days of Dominic Cummings under Boris Johnson.

Some believe it was McSweeney who, as head of the thinktank Labour Together, picked Starmer out as the leader for his centrist movement, rather the other way round.

McSweeney's influence was so all-encompassing that one Labour source was quoted in a recent book as saying Starmer thought he was driving the train when actually he had been placed at the front of the driverless Docklands Light Railway.

BREAKING: McSweeney's think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists

Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.

Labour Together paid a controversial PR firm at least £30,000 to investigate journalists that were digging into how its undeclared funding bankrolled Keir Starmer's successful Labour leadership campaign, Democracy for Sale can reveal.

The influential Starmerite think tank, once run by Morgan McSweeney and then by Josh Simons, now a minister in Starmer's government, hired APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists from the Sunday Times, the Guardian and other outlets and to identify their sources, documents we have seen show.

ACPO was hired in 2023, when Simons ran Labour Together. Sources close to Morgan McSweeney, who joined Starmer's team in 2020, said that he did not make the decision to hire APCO but did not dispute that he was aware of it.

A political think tank hiring a PR firm to investigate journalists is highly unusual, and the revelations have sparked furious response from a senior figure in Labour Together's formation.

Former Labour MP Jon Cruddas, who helped found the organisation in 2015, said our findings were "shocking" and "extraordinary".

"I have heard of black briefings, but never heard of anything like this," he told us. "This is dark shit."

Labour Together paid to investigate journalists digging into their election spending

Starmer's future?

Government in 'freefall' following Morgan McSweeney's exit