Starmer aide resigns after leaked messages show sexual remarks about Abbott

A spokesperson for Downing Street called the messages “appalling and unacceptable”, ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan has an exclusive report, which contains details and language you may find upsetting

Warning: This article contains sexually explicit language

One of Sir Keir Starmer’s most senior advisers made sexually explicit and offensive remarks about veteran MP Diane Abbott, ITV News can reveal.

Messages seen by ITV News show Paul Ovenden, who served as the Director of Strategy in Downing Street and was one of a handful of top aides in Number 10, admitting to discussing Ms Abbott in derogatory sexual terms with Labour colleagues in 2017.

In light of the messages revealed by ITV News, Mr Ovenden has resigned from his role at Number 10.

Mr Ovenden, who earned between £115,000 and £120,000 a year, recalled having played a more explicit version of the game of ‘snog, marry, avoid’ with Labour Party colleagues the previous day, saying, “I nearly wet myself from laughing.”

In the exchange, which took place on the Labour Party’s internal instant messaging system, Mr Ovenden recounted a conversation involving a sex toy and multiple sex acts directed at Ms Abbott, which he himself described as “outrageous”.

Ovenden: I have got something that will make you lol from last night. We were playing shag marry kill at PT. Honestly, I nearly wet myself from laughing.

Labour staffer: What??? I love that game!

Ovenden: 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. ‘what are you doing? It’s so big it has shoulder staps’

Labour staffer: Hahaha that’s amazing!!! What was the answer? Some awful mental pics are assembling in my head.

Ovenden: We spent a lot of time discussing REDACTED going down on Diane. Hoenstly [sic] it was outrageous.

Labour staffer: Oh my god.

After ITV News approached Mr Ovenden on Sunday, he responded on Monday saying: “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,” he said.

A spokesperson for Downing Street called the messages “appalling and unacceptable”.

They added: “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.”

The messages pile further pressure on the Prime Minister, who in recent weeks has already lost two senior figures, his deputy Angela Rayner and his US Ambassador, Lord Mandelson, to scandal.

The comments were made while Mr Ovenden was employed as a Labour Party press officer in 2017, when he was dealing with the party’s external media communications while Jeremy Corbyn was leader.

A year before the comments, Labour had introduced a member’s pledge and a social media code of conduct that says party members must treat people with ‘dignity and respect’ online and offline, and that ‘the use of sexualised language or imagery’ is unacceptable.

Mr Ovenden left his press officer role to work for a communications firm but later returned to the party to become Labour’s Director of Communications when Keir Starmer was elected Labour leader in 2020.

He was later appointed a special advisor to the Prime Minister after Labour’s general election victory in 2024, working closely with Morgan McSweeney, now the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff.

As one of a handful of Sir Keir’s top aides, he analysed voter trends and opinions to determine how they should influence the Prime Minister’s speeches, policy and media strategy.

He also reported directly to McSweeney, with whom he has worked for a number of years.

Ms Abbott, currently “mother of the house”, the longest-serving female MP, is a historic figure in British politics, having become the first black woman elected to Parliament in 1987.

Ms Abbott has had a strained relationship with the Labour Party in recent years.

The former shadow home secretary was suspended in 2023 over comments about racism, later apologised and was then readmitted ahead of the 2024 general election.

She was then suspended again earlier this year after repeating those remarks and currently sits as an independent MP.

It has already faced a turbulent few weeks for the prime minister since returning from the summer recess.

Last week, he sacked his US ambassador, Lord Mandelson, due to his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

This came on the heels of a major cabinet reshuffle following the dramatic resignation of his Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, who admitted to underpaying stamp duty on a Brighton property, prompting sweeping changes to cabinet.

All that was after a reshuffle of his Downing Street team, which Mr Ovenden survived, that was billed as the start of “phase two” of his government.

ITV News has contacted Ms Abbott for comment.

The messages feature in the upcoming book ‘The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy’ written by investigative journalist Paul Holden. It is due to be published in October.