The New Statesman.

Kirstama's Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney has resigned over his role in appointing Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador in 2024.

Mandelson was given the job despite his ongoing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after the financier had pleaded guilty to soliciting

sex from girls as young as 14. Police are now investigating claims that Mandelson passed

sensitive information to the convicted sex offender. And today, Stama's Director of Communications

Tim Allen has also resigned. Will Kyr Stama follow them out the door? I'm Anusha Kellyan, and joining me from

Westminster is our political editor Alva Ray. Hi, Alva. Hello. You're hiding in a little cupboard

away from all the drama. Yeah, I'm in the coffin. One of these phone booths that loom over the

press gallery in the House of Commons, where I think

historically people would have rung in their copy to their news desks. Wow. So literally where the

phrase phone it in came from. Not that you ever phone it in, Alva. You have been working hard

all weekend. We have to reflect that. So let's talk about what's just

happened. We're literally, you have just filed your piece on the resignation of Tim Allen. We've

just had that news. Tell us, why is he gone? Yes. Oh my goodness. It's quite hard to

overstate what a big moment this is and how much it's taken everyone by surprise and how it's

not prompting questions over whether Kirstama will make it to the end of the day, which may be

a bit dramatic and may be proven by the time people are listening to this to be completely unfounded.

But, I mean, obviously we're going to talk about Morgan McSweeney resigning yesterday.

That was a question that people had been asking for months, whether Morgan McSweeney would go.

Tim Allen's departure almost feels more shocking and in a way more significant because it's

taken people completely by surprise. So for a bit of background,

Tim Allen has been Director of Communications in Number 10 for five months.

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