3 hours ago
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Paul Ovenden, a senior aide to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has resigned after offensive and sexual text messages came to light in which he recounted a conversation about veteran MP Diane Abbott.
The messages were reported in the Daily Mail, and are understood to have been made eight years ago, as part of an online private conversation.
In a statement to ITV News, Mr Ovenden said he was "truly, deeply sorry for it and the hurt it will cause".
A spokesperson for the prime minister called the messages "appalling and unacceptable", saying: "As the first black woman to be elected to Parliament, Diane Abbott is a trailblazer who has faced horrendous abuse throughout her political career."
They added: "These kinds of comments have no place in our politics."
Abbott has declined to comment on Mr Ovenden's resignation.
Mr Ovenden was Sir Keir's director of political strategy and the messages are understood to have been made when he was a press officer for the Labour party.
In the messages, he recounted colleagues' comments made during a more explicit version of the game Snog, Marry, Avoid with graphic sexual imagery relating to Abbott.
Abbott is the longest-serving female MP in Parliament, having represented the Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency since 1987.
For much of her parliamentary career she has been a Labour MP, but earlier this year was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party for comments she made about racism.
Mr Ovenden in his statement: "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."
His resignation comes just a few days after the prime minister sacked Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to the US and less than two weeks after Angela Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister.
Asked if the Downing Street operation was "a shambles", a No 10 spokesman replied: "The PM's focus is on delivering practical change to make a difference to people's lives."
The spokesman would not say if Sir Keir had contacted Abbott about the messages.
One senior ally of Mr Ovenden in government said: "It's a factional hit to expose Keir and Morgan [McSweeney, Sir Keir's chief of staff]. Pathetic.
"And it raises a massive question about how we judge ourselves. Someone's private messages get hacked, held for eight years on someone's laptop, briefed to a journalist... and they [Ovenden] are the one who has to resign."
Labour MP Nadia Whittome said the "misogynistic comments... recounted with glee by Paul Ovenden are utterly despicable".
"The fact that the party knew about this and swept it under the carpet until it was reported in the press, is unforgivable.
"The individual who made these comments, as well as those who covered it up and those now defending Ovenden, have no place in the Labour Party."
