Morgan McSweeney is not the first person to have had their phone snatched on a London street, but the fact he was at the time Keir Starmer\u2019s chief of staff, and that his phone most likely contained messages to and from Peter Mandelson, has prompted questions. So what do we know about the circumstances surrounding the theft of McSweeney\u2019s phone?<\/p>\n
What is the official story?<\/p>\n
According to McSweeney, in an account backed up by<\/a> the transcript of his call to the Metropolitan police at the time, he was using his government-issued phone on a street in Pimlico, central London, just before 10.30pm on 20 October last year when a young man on a bike snatched the iPhone and pedalled off.<\/p>\n McSweeney also had a personal phone with him, which he used to dial 999. He told the Met police handler that he had called his \u201coffice\u201d to get the phone tracked before phoning them. McSweeney said it was a \u201cgovernment phone\u201d, but did not set out his job or where he worked, and the call handler did not appear to recognise his name.<\/p>\n What evidence is there?<\/p>\n It is known McSweeney called the police, and Downing Street says security teams there were also told that night. An initial investigation found no CCTV footage, but that was in part because McSweeney initially gave the wrong street location \u2013 Belgrave Street rather than Belgrave Road \u2013 meaning the Met believed he had been robbed in Stepney, east London. The investigation is now being revisited<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why has the stolen phone become an issue?<\/p>\n Two words: Peter Mandelson. McSweeney is seen as having been key to No 10\u2019s decision at the end of 2024 to appoint<\/a> the controversial former Labour minister as the UK\u2019s ambassador to Washington DC, a move that backfired nine months later<\/a> after the extent of Mandelson\u2019s links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became apparent.<\/p>\n The controversy has reflected very badly on the government. McSweeney is \u2013 or at least was \u2013 close to Mandelson, and his phone would be likely to contain messages between the pair, potentially ones that could show up Starmer\u2019s No 10 in a poor light.<\/p>\n And it is not as if the convenient loss of a phone never happens. The phone belonging to Rebekah Vardy\u2019s agent fell off a boat<\/a>, destroying messages potentially crucial in her libel trial against fellow spouse-of-a-footballer Coleen Rooney. And, closer to No 10, thousands of WhatsApp messages belonging to Boris Johnson and potentially relevant to the Covid inquiry vanished<\/a> after he changed his phone and forgot a password.<\/p>\n When did this all take place?<\/p>\n