Starmer's Former Chief of Staff Victim of Record-Breaking London Phone Theft Wave
Morgan McSweeney, the former chief-of-staff to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, had his government-issued iPhone stolen in October 2025, placing him among 70 victims targeted in a single month in an upmarket area of London. The incident occurred on Belgrave Road in the Pimlico district of Westminster, highlighting a surge in personal theft crimes that has raised significant political and security concerns.
Record Monthly Theft Figures in Pimlico North
Metropolitan Police data for the Pimlico North area reveals that October 2025 saw 70 reported 'theft from the person' offences, the highest monthly total since records began in February 2023. The previous peak was 65 incidents in July 2025. Overall, 273 crimes were recorded in the area that month, including 72 cases of anti-social behaviour, 35 of 'other theft', and 32 violence and sexual offences. While this overall figure was average compared to the past year, it was surpassed by four other months in 2025, with May recording the highest at 297 incidents.
Political Fallout Over Lost Communications
The theft of McSweeney's phone has sparked fears that critical exchanges regarding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador to the United States may be lost. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for McSweeney to provide in-person evidence to MPs about the appointment if key messages on the device cannot be recovered. Badenoch emphasised the need to 'end the cover-up' over Mandelson, who was appointed in December 2024 despite warnings about his 'particularly close' relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
McSweeney resigned from Downing Street last month, with many attributing his departure to his role in pushing Mandelson's appointment. The missing phone is believed to contain hundreds of messages exchanged with Mandelson before and after his appointment, prompting Parliament to demand the release of all related communications, including emails and WhatsApp messages.
Police Response and Investigation Errors
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that McSweeney reported the theft in October 2025, shortly after Labour officials reportedly warned he would be 'f***ed' if his messages to Lord Mandelson were ever revealed. In an unprecedented move, the Met released the transcript of McSweeney's 999 call, in which he described the thief as a black man on a bicycle and mentioned chasing him, noting the device was a 'government phone'. However, he did not disclose his position as the PM's chief-of-staff or the sensitive nature of the phone's contents, simply stating he 'works in London'.
A critical error occurred when the call handler misrecorded the location as Belgrave Street in Tower Hamlets instead of Belgrave Road in Westminster. This mistake led officers to review incorrect CCTV footage, concluding there were no viable lines of inquiry. The investigation is now under review, and MPs have moved to force the publication of tens of thousands of documents amid ongoing questions about Mandelson's links to Epstein.
Broader Context of London's Phone Theft Epidemic
London has faced a persistent phone theft crisis in recent years. Between 2017 and early 2024, only 13,998 stolen phones were recovered out of 587,498 taken. However, recent Met data shows a 12 per cent decline in recorded mobile phone thefts in 2025, with 71,391 incidents compared to 81,365 in 2024. Despite this improvement, the theft of high-profile devices like McSweeney's underscores ongoing vulnerabilities in personal security and data protection in the capital.
