Cardiff West MP loses government job as Starmerites are purged

Martin Shipton

Cardiff West Labour MP Alex Barros-Curtis has lost his place in the UK Government as part of a cull of Starmer “uber-loyalists”, we have been told.

Barros-Curtis was controversially parachuted into the safe seat in 2024 after the previous MP Kevin Brennan made a late decision to stand down. He was subsequently made a member of the House of Lords.

Grassroots party members were denied a say in the selection of a new candidate, and a panel appointed by Labour’s National Executive Committee chose Barros-Curtis. He won the seat with a reduced majority at the general election held in July 2024.

Former First Minister Mark Drakeford, who represented the same constituency at the Senedd, refused to share an office with Barros-Curtis and moved elsewhere.

Last year Barros-Curtis was appointed by Starmer as Parliamentary Private Secretary – the lowest rung in the government hierarchy – to the UK Government’s Legal Officers, headed by the then Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer. The new Prime Minister replaced Hermer with Ellie Reeves, and Barros-Curtis was not reappointed. Kevin Bonavia, another first term Labour MP, was however reappointed as the other PPS to the Legal Officers.

We sent a message to Barros-Curtis – who is known in political circles as ABC – asking him whether he had been sacked or had stepped down voluntarily. He did not respond.

A Labour insider told Nation.Cymru: “ABC was one of Keir Starmer’s most loyal allies, and set up a company to support him when he stood for the party leadership after Jeremy Corbyn resigned.

“Quite a few of the uber-Starmer loyalists have lost their jobs in government. They were seen by Burnham’s team as faction-ridden and obstructive.

“ABC is not the kind of guy who gives the impression of being someone burning with ambition to climb the ministerial pole, but he was certainly involved in working with Morgan McSweeney to undermine the party’s left. He was in the minority of Labour MPs who did not nominate Andy Burnham for the party leadership when Starmer quit.

“While a lot of Starmer loyalists have lost their positions, there is one in Wales who remains in post. Carolyn Harris [the MP for Swansea East] remains deputy leader of Welsh Labour, and has now served under five leaders: Carwyn Jones, Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething, Eluned Morgan and now Ken Skates. While Eluned quickly took responsibility for the Senedd election defeat and resigned, Carolyn Harris stays in place, contributing little and actually speaking out against official Welsh Labour policy, like devolving the police service. It’s bizarre.”

A book published last year called The Fraud, by investigative journalist Paul Holden, chronicles in great detail the allegedly ruthless actions taken by Keir Starmer’s team of loyalists in purging Labour of left-wingers. Barros-Curtis was the executive legal director of the Labour Party and heavily involved in such activity.

Areas of concern

Asked by Nation.Cymru to describe the areas of concern about Barros-Curtis’ actions, Holden said: “From the point of view of good governance, it really is extremely problematic that you have him from late 2019 all the way through to 2024 as both the head of legal for the Labour Party and also the sole director of Movement For Another Future Ltd [a company originally set up to run Starmer’s leadership campaign].

“He effectively headed up the party’s Governance and Legal Unit, which deals with all the complaints against members as well as things like candidate checking and vetting, and deciding who can and can’t become a councillor, MS or MP. People were investigated for criticising Keir Starmer over the way he handled Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension and local party officials were suspended from their positions for allowing such matters to be discussed at meetings of Constituency Labour Parties. It was a profound conflict of interest.”

Another area of major concern was, argues Holden, the very fact that the leader’s office under Starmer, and guided by Barros-Curtis, was involved in the managing of complaints against party members, some of whom were prominent figures. The investigation report of the Equality and Human Rights Commission into allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party made it very clear that the leader’s office should have no role in handling complaints.

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