A senior adviser to Keir Starmer has resigned after it was revealed he sent inappropriate messages about the Labour MP Diane Abbott eight years ago.
Paul Ovenden quit on Monday as the prime minister’s director of political strategy after details emerged about a sexually explicit WhatsApp conversation he had in 2017.
His resignation is another setback for the beleaguered prime minister, who has also lost his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, and his Washington ambassador, Peter Mandelson, to separate scandals in the last two weeks.
The messages show Ovenden and a friend joking about a party that Ovenden had attended the night before at which attenders had joked about having sex with Abbott, the Labour MP who is the longest-serving woman in the Commons.
The pair exchanged messages in which Ovenden recounted an explicit conversation in which people at the party had played a game of “shag, marry, kill”.
Ovenden, who had previously told friends he was planning to stand down after the party conference later this month, said he did not want to cause another distraction for Starmer’s government.
He said on Monday: “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.”
He added: “As an adviser, my duty is to protect the reputation of the prime minister and his government. Most people could find a private conversation they’ve had in the last decade, whether in the pub or on WhatsApp, that would be distasteful or embarrassing if it were published.
“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.”
Abbott, 71, likened the comments to those highlighted in a report by the barrister Martin Forde into bullying, racism and sexism in the Labour party, calling them “very unpleasant”.
A Downing Street spokesperson 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.”
Ovenden’s resignation deepens the prime minister’s woes after two weeks of damaging headlines about Rayner, Mandelson and the Downing Street operation in general.
With Donald Trump, the US president, arriving in the UK on Tuesday, No 10 had been keen for the visit not to be overshadowed by domestic scandal.
However, some in Labour believe Ovenden’s departure will damage the prime minister more than the messages in question, as well as leaving Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, more exposed than ever.
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The pair were part of a small and tightknit group of Starmer loyalists who have been with the prime minister since his early days as Labour leader.
A Labour source said Ovenden was “a massive loss”. “He never asked for the credit, but his fingerprints were on last year’s victory,” the person said. “He stuck with Labour through the miserable days, while others walked away.”
Another said: “Paul was the best brain in government, and without his instincts and intellect battling for the priorities of the voter, this government risks turning inwards.”
A former journalist, Ovenden joined the party in 2014 as a press officer, and was doing that job at the time of the WhatsApp exchange.
In the run-up to the election, he headed Labour’s attack unit, preparing damaging material on other parties. Members of that unit boasted about having helped inform 150 newspaper articles that damaged their opponents, mainly about the Conservatives.
Since entering government, Ovenden had played a less frontline role, working behind the scenes on political strategy.
Though he was already planning his departure, friends said his decision to resign would damage the government further at a time when the prime minister is already facing a mounting rebellion on the Labour benches.