Top Starmer aide quits over X-rated Diane Abbott messages: No10 director of strategy Paul Ovenden out in latest scandal to hit Labour

Keir Starmer was plunged into a fresh crisis today when one of his top aides resigned over sexually explicit messages about Diane Abbott.

Paul Ovenden today quit his role as Director of Strategy after what No10 said were ‘appalling and unacceptable’ exchanges from 2017 were uncovered.

Mr Ovenden, a former newspaper journalist who began working for Labour in 2014, is a close ally of both the Prime Minister and his under-pressure chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

The Daily Mail understands that Mr Ovenden had exchanged messages with a former colleague in which he retold a story about a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ relating to Ms Abbott he was involved in.

He graphically recounted the conversation in which two women described performing sex acts on Ms Abbott, now 71.

The veteran MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was at the time the shadow home secretary in Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team.

It is the latest astonishing turn of events to hit No10 and the beleaguered Prime Minister in the past fortnight.

Sir Keir is already reeling from the resignation of Angela Rayner for underpaying taxes and the sacking late last week of ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson. 

Today the PM broke his silence for the first time since Mandelson was axed, telling broadcasters ‘had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed’ him because of his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

One veteran Labour moderate told the Mail: ‘Keir is finished… he was a dud from day one.’

The Daily Mail understands that Mr Ovenden had exchanged emails with a former colleague in 2017 in which he retold a story about a game of ‘shag, marry, kill’ involving Ms Abbott

Sir Keir is already reeling from the resignation of Angela Rayner for underpaying taxes and the sacking late last week of ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson

They added: ‘Keir can’t do politics. It was astonishing arrogance to think he can be PM without even liking politics…

‘It’s like being England manager and saying ”I don’t like football”.’

A despairing senior MP said: ‘It is the decline of Rome. This is just the start.

‘There are questions for Lammy, but in the end this is about Keir not being able to do politics. He never could and he never will.’ 

Mr Ovenden worked for the Sunday Telegraph, Sky and the NSPCC before joining Labour. He left again during Mr Corbyn’s tenure, before returning to work for Sir Keir in two spells. 

A Labour source said: ‘Paul Ovenden was the best brain in the Labour Party and the role he played in the landslide election was immeasurable.’ 

But a No 10 spokesman said: ‘These messages are appalling and unacceptable. As the first black woman to be elected to Parliament, Diane Abbott is a trailblazer who has faced horrendous abuse throughout her political career.

‘These kinds of comments have no place in our politics.’

Mr Ovenden told ITV News he had been involved in ‘a silly conversation’ eight years ago.   

‘Before summer, I had announced to some of my colleagues my intention to leave government,’ he said.

‘Though the messages long pre-date my current employment and relationship with the Prime Minister, I’ve brought forward my resignation to avoid distracting from the vital work this government is doing to positively change people’s lives.

‘As an advisor, my duty is to protect the reputation of the Prime Minister and his government.’

‘While it is chilling that a private conversation from nearly a decade ago can do this sort of damage, I am also truly, deeply sorry for it and the hurt it will cause,’ he added.

On the eve of Donald Trump’s state visit, the government benches are seething with fury over the latest example of the premier’s dire judgment. 

Ms Abbott, who is currently suspended by Labour, is a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn and staunch critic of Sir Keir who today joined disgruntled Labour backbenchers in warning he has months to turn around the party’s fortunes. 

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield said the Overton row ‘reflects so badly on Keir Starmer’s judgement’, adding: ‘This disgusting sexist crap, known about for several years, in comparison to the total lack of respect shown to Dine Abbott, one of our most senior MPs, much more recently…’

The May elections have been identified as a make-or-break moment, with fears Nigel Farage could see another huge surge.

However, Sir Keir is facing even more immediate challenges over what was known about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein. 

The PM was out and about unveiling details of a new nuclear power deal with America later. 

But his attempt to wrestle control of the agenda was dashed by the latest resignation from his government.

Left-winger Richard Burgon told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that he expects Sir Keir to be ‘gone’ by next summer.

‘Lots of MPs are looking to the elections next May, the opinion polls suggest it’s going to be a complete disaster unfortunately,’ he said.

‘I think it’s inevitable that if May’s elections go as people predict, and the opinion polls predict, then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.

‘It feels like we are years and years into an unpopular government, rather than a year into a government that’s just got rid of the Conservatives. We’re losing votes to the left, we’re going to be losing seats to the right.

‘We face a real threat for the first time in our country’s history of what I would consider to be a far-right extremist government – it’s the Prime Minister’s duty to stop that happening. You can only do that by delivering for people who want real change, and if you can’t do that, then of course, there’s going to have to be change at the very top.’

The MP for Leeds East added: ‘The Prime Minister needs to change course immediately, otherwise, I’m pretty certain he’ll be gone next May as it stands.’

Education Select Committee chair Helen Hayes said that if the May elections were as bad as feared there would have to be ‘questions about the nature of the leadership’.

‘If those elections don’t go well then that will be the time to ask questions… Questions about the nature of the leadership and whether things can continue as they are,’ she said.

Labour rules set a very high bar for removing the leader against their will. 

At least 80 MPs must nominate one potential replacement, before a card vote is held at the annual conference on whether there should be a full membership election. 

Touring broadcast studios this morning, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith denied Sir Keir is in the ‘last-chance saloon’.