Starmer aide quits over sexually explicit Diane Abbott messages
No 10’s director of strategy resigns after lewd email exchange with former colleague about veteran Labour MP
One of Sir Keir Starmer’s top aides has resigned after making sexually explicit comments about Diane Abbott.
Paul Ovenden was the director of strategy for No 10 and an ally of the Prime Minister and Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s chief of staff.
Mr Ovenden quit after an email exchange with a former colleague from 2017 came to light about a game of “shag, marry, kill” that he had overheard.
He recounted a conversation in which two women explicitly described how they would sleep with the veteran Labour MP.
It is the third high-profile departure from Sir Keir’s administration following the sacking of Lord Mandelson and Angela Rayner’s resignation.
The messages were reportedly sent by Mr Ovenden to a Labour staffer on the Party’s internal instant messaging system.
At the time, Mr Ovenden was a press officer for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn. Later that year, he left politics to work in communications consultancy, before returning to the party in 2020.
In one of the messages, seen by ITV News, Mr Ovenden reportedly said: “[Redacted] asking [redacted] who would use the strap on out of her and Diane Abbott was the highlight/lowlight.
“And then [redacted’s] phyiscal [sic] demonstration of [redacted] putting it on was amazing.”
In a statement to ITV News, Mr Ovenden said: “I am accused of eight years ago as a junior press officer sharing with a female colleague the details of a silly conversation that I was party to with other female staff members.
“Before summer, I had announced to some of my colleagues my intention to leave government.
“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.”
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
