Who are No 10’s new power brokers after Morgan McSweeney’s resignation?
Morgan McSweeney’s departure from Downing Street is the biggest shift in power at the heart of Keir Starmer’s operation since he came to office,As the prime minister appoints two acting replacements for his closest aide, here are the people vying for the prime minister’s ear in the new No 10 operation,Acting chief of staffAlakeson won plaudits before the election for leading Starmer’s outreach to the business community,Like many of those at the top of the Labour party, she has a background at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, where she was deputy chief executive,Before that she worked in the Treasury as a policy adviser.
Those who have worked with her in No 10, where she was deputy chief of staff until Sunday, have praised her work ethic and her ability to work with groups outside the Labour party.But as a policy expert some say she lacks the raw political skills so ruthlessly employed by McSweeney.Acting chief of staffCuthbertson and Alakeson have shared the role as McSweeney’s deputy, with Cuthbertson tending to concentrate on logistics and operations.Cuthbertson has a long background in Labour politics, having worked in No 10 under Gordon Brown and then as part of Ed Miliband’s events team when he was party leader.Seen as a trusted pair of hands, she was known for her detailed logistical plans during the election campaign, which helped Starmer avoid the kind of mistakes that bedevilled the early days of Rishi Sunak’s campaign.
Chief secretary to the prime ministerIt was just five months ago that Starmer relaunched his Downing Street team, with Darren Jones at its centre in the newly created role of chief secretary to the prime minister.The Labour MP and former Treasury chief secretary was brought in to help the government deliver the prime minister’s priorities.He told allies it was his job to bash heads together when ministers could not agree on a particular course of action.Starmer’s regard for Jones was clear from the outset, when he tried to get McSweeney to report to him rather than straight to Starmer himself.McSweeney refused, but insiders say Jones’s arrival marked the beginning of the decline in McSweeney’s influence.
Political directorRichards was a long-time adviser to Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, and worked on her leadership campaign in 2015.She was brought into Downing Street in September as Starmer looked to revamp the way his operation communicated with Labour MPs after the welfare rebellion.Loyal and low-key, Richards has encouraged the prime minister to do far more regular outreach to his parliamentary party, with some success.Starmer has been seen more in the Commons, including in the MPs’ tea room, assuaging concerns among colleagues that he had become too distant from the concerns of his own colleagues.Head of No 10 policy unitA former Fulbright scholar, Redgrave is a home affairs policy specialist who previously spent seven years at the Tony Blair Institute.
Redgrave was a senior adviser to Miliband when he was leader of the opposition.He was appointed as the head of the policy unit in September as part of a shakeup that some on the left saw as a push by Starmer to expel the few remaining true progressives from his inner team.
My cultural awakening: Bach helped me survive sexual abuse as a child
For pianist James Rhodes, the composer’s music expressed feelings that he could not put into words – and kept helping him as his mental health suffered in adulthoodWhen I found a cassette tape of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, aged seven, it’s how I imagine a kid would feel seeing Messi play football and thinking: I have to do that with my life. By then, I had already been sexually abused by a teacher for two years, and despite showing all the signs of trauma – night terrors, twitching, wetting the bed, constant stomach aches – I obediently kept his secret. To me, the world was a war zone of pain. I was a shy, awkward, lonely kid, but alone in my bedroom with that piece of music, I found a little bit of light that was just for me. Hearing it for the first time was almost a religious experience
From Lord of the Flies to Deftones: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Adolescence writer Jack Thorne takes on the classic tale of deserted schoolboys, while the US band warm up for a pummelling summer of alt metal100 Nights of HeroOut nowMaika Monroe plays a woman shut up in a castle with her husband’s handsome and seductive best friend (Nicholas Galitzine) who has made a wager that he can tempt her to stray from her marriage. Sharp-witted maid Hero (Emma Corrin) clocks what’s going on and does her best to foil the dirtbag’s schemes, in this fairytale fantasy from Julia Jackman. Charli xcx also stars.My Father’s ShadowOut nowṢọpẹ́ Dìrísù (Slow Horses) stars in a semi-autobiographical debut from Akinola Davies Jr in which an estranged father travels through the city of Lagos in Nigeria with his two young sons during a day of violent unrest following the 1993 election crisis.HamletOut nowSomething is rotten in the state of England: Riz Ahmed plays Shakespeare’s famous Dane as a scion of a wealthy British South Asian family in Aneil Karia’s modern take on probably the most famous play of all time
Austin Butler to play Lance Armstrong in big-screen biopic
The Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler is scheduled to take on the role of the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in a buzzy new biopic.According to Deadline, the package has caused a “frenzied” bidding war in Hollywood with the Conclave director Edward Berger at the helm and King Richard’s Zach Baylin set to write the script.Producer Scott Stuber, who recently worked on Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, has been working to secure Armstrong’s life rights for a while and a deal has now finally been agreed. Armstrong will be involved in the film but will not have a producing credit.The hope is for the film to be a cross between F1 and The Wolf of Wall Street
Stephen Colbert: ‘Trump would eat a bicycle tire if you put it on a bun’
On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert responded to White House adviser Paula White-Cain’s claims that Donald Trump is “the GOAT”, while Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers addressed ICE and Jeffrey Epstein.Over on the Late Show, Colbert turned his attention to Trump’s appearance at the national prayer breakfast and his speech at the Washington Hilton hotel. Or as Colbert called the president’s 77-minute address, “special material just for the prayer munchers”.Ahead of his remarks, Trump was introduced by White-Cain, the White House senior adviser who Colbert called a “haunted Bloomingdale’s mannequin”. White-Cain introduced the president as “the GOAT: the greatest of all time”
Aacta awards 2026: horror film Bring Her Back and Jacob Elordi win big at Australian film and TV prizes
Bring Her Back has dominated at the 2026 Aacta (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) awards, winning 10 of 16 nominations, while Jacob Elordi has continued his recent awards buzz by taking home best lead actor for his performance in The Narrow Road to the Deep North.Bring Her Back, Danny and Michael Philippou’s horror-thriller about a sinister foster mother, emerged as the most awarded film of the night with 10 wins. This marks a major milestone for the Adelaide brothers, surpassing the eight awards they won for their 2024 global breakout, Talk to Me.Bring Her Back won best direction, best film, best leading actress in a film for Sally Hawkins and almost every technical category, including cinematography, editing, original score, sound, costume design, hair and makeup, and casting.Fresh from his Critics’ Choice Movie awards win for his portrayal of the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Elordi won best lead actor in a drama for his portrayal of army surgeon Dorrigo Evans in the screen adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Volcanic vulvas and hermaphrodite marble: Ovid’s Metamorphoses reshaped at the Rijksmuseum
Artists from Bernini to Louise Bourgeois are brought together in a new exhibition exploring the uncomfortable erotic parables of the ancient Roman poetOn three massive screens in a darkened room, snakes glide over the face of artist Juul Kraijer – covering her eyes, caressing her lips. She is the silent but terrifying snake-headed Medusa, and one of the surprises in an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam revolving around Greek and Roman myths.While the show features rarely lent works from masters such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Rodin and Brâncuși, it marries them with modern artists who reinterpret the legends where male gods do all they can to get their wicked way and the powerless are punished. Transgender bodies, bare breasts and even a volcanic vulva appear in artworks inspired by Roman poet Ovid’s masterpiece, Metamorphoses.Taco Dibbits, general director of the Rijksmuseum, believes the 200 myths and legends from this ancient epic poem still speak to our uncertain times
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