A senior Downing Street aide has resigned after 'sexually explicit' messages he wrote about Labour MP Diane Abbott were uncovered. Number 10’s Director of Strategy Paul Ovenden quit on Monday when emails he sent in 2017 emerged.
The former Sunday newspaper journalist began working for Labour in 2014 and is a close ally of both the Prime Minister and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. Mr Ovenden resigned to avoid becoming 'a distraction' to the government, which has been marred in scandal in recent weeks.
It is understood the emails were part of a cache of internal messages that were leaked in 2020 and showed senior Labour officials were openly plotting against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Mr Ovenden is said to have discussed comments two female staff members made about sex acts involving Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Ms Abbott.
A No 10 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.'
The resignation is the latest blow to Sir Keir Starmer, coming after high-profile sackings and resignations in recent weeks, including Angela Rayner quitting as Deputy Prime Minister following a tax scandal and Lord Peter Mandelson being fired as British Ambassador to the US over his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Labour is trailing Nigel Farage's Reform UK in opinion polls and has lost council by-elections since Sir Keir became Prime Minister last July.
