WE plebs have been afforded a glimpse into the dynasties running the Labour Government after a list of the “power couples” calling the shots at Westminster was published.
This Valentine's Day, Politico released its list of the 40 “romances running Britain” – and there is no shortage of familial connections at the top of Labour.
The top spot on the list went to No 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his wife, Scottish Labour MP Imogen Walker.
In a blow for the Prime Minister – who many say answers to McSweeney anyway – he and his wife Victoria Starmer were way down in seventh place.
Here is a run-down of some of the key family ties at the top of the Labour Government.
Rachel Reeves
Walker, McSweeney’s wife, is Reeves’s parliamentary private secretary.
Ellie Reeves, the Labour Party chair and a minister who attends Cabinet, is the Chancellor’s sister.
Ellie Reeves is married to John Cryer – a Labour peer and Lords whip who previously chaired the parliamentary Labour Party. That makes one of Labour's most important voices in the Lords the Chancellor’s brother-in-law.
What's more, Matt Pound, Reeves’s political secretary, is married to Henna Shah – No 10’s director of party relations.
Shah previously worked for Pat McFadden as an advisor. Pat McFadden, a close Starmer ally serving as the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, is married to Labour deputy general secretary Marianna McFadden.
Keeping up? Good.
Yvette Cooper
Cooper’s chief of staff, Amy Richards, is married to Scottish Labour MP Gregor Poynton.
Amy Richards’s brother, Jake Richards, is also a Labour MP. He is married to Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates.
It goes on
Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, is married to Claire Reynolds – who works as Starmer’s political director.
Finn McGoldrick, the Business Secretary’s chief of staff, is married to Labour MP and former Labour adviser Olivia Bailey.
Labour MP and Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Georgia Gould is married to Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall’s adviser Alex Zatman. The two got married in 2021 – and former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell played the bagpipes, Politico reported.
Jonathan Ashworth – the director of Labour Together who lost his seat in the General Election to a pro-Palestine independent and is relentlessly bitter about it – is partnered with Sports Minister Steph Peacock.
And Health Secretary Wes Streeting is set to marry Labour’s policy and communications director Joe Dancey.
If you can believe it, there is actually a lot more. You can read the full list of 40 couples on the Politico website – but remember that is not extensive either.
It doesn't, for example, mention John Smith's daughter Catherine being made Advocate General for Scotland, or Starmer's best mate Richard Hermer becoming Attorney General. They both got life seats in the Lords to take on those roles, of course.
Who said cronyism was dead?
