‘The Mandelson Scandal Shows how Labour Became Part of the Very Establishment It had Once Existed to Challenge’

The departure of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney – over his appointment of his ally Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador – does not change the systemic culture absorbed by the party that allowed his rise, writes Clive Lewis MP

Morgan McSweeney’s resignation should not be treated as a cleansing moment. He was not an aberration. He was the tip of an iceberg.

What he represents is a political culture that has dominated Labour for a generation.

A culture forged under Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson that taught the party to be relaxed about extreme wealth, comfortable in the orbit of billionaires, lobbyists and corporate power, and increasingly detached from the lives of the people it was created to represent.