Top Starmer Aide Quits Over Leaked Sexually Explicit Messages About Diane Abbott

One of Keir Starmer’s senior advisers has resigned over leaked messages about a game of ‘sh*g, marry, kill’ featuring Diane Abbott played with Labour Party colleagues.

Paul Ovenden used his work account on the party’s internal messaging system (smart) to tell another colleague he had a story ‘that will make you lol from last night’.

He wrote: ‘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.’

When the colleague asked for details, Ovenden said the ‘highlight’ was one person asking another ‘who would use the strap on out of her and Diane Abbott’. LOL – elite level banter, or what?

He also added that the group spent a lot of time discussing [REDACTED] going down on Diane Abbott.

Ovenden, who earned up to £120,000 a year as Starmer’s director of strategy, wrote the messages while employed in the party’s press team when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and Abbott was shadow home secretary, back in 2017. I wonder why it’s taken so long for this story to leak?

Ovenden admitted the comments were ‘inappropriate’ but said they were ‘details of a silly conversation’ which happened when he was a junior staffer.

Even still, Labour’s code of conduct says party members must not use ‘sexualised language or imagery’ on social media, and I guess the internal messaging system falls under that banner.

Ovenden has risen up the ranks since the messages were sent in 2017, having been one of a team of core aides who steered the ‘Starmer project’ aimed at making Labour electable after Jeremy Corbyn. Although maybe that had more to do with how shambolic the Tories were.

Ovenden has apologised via a statement to ITV, saying: ‘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.’

A spokesperson for Downing Street 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.’

Might be a good idea not to send them on a work account next time. Still, one has to wonder what is going on behind the scenes for these messages to be sat on for eight years and only get leaked now. Seems like it could be the type of thing that is saved for until they want to apply pressure to a PM, or something. After all, there was no leverage leaking them in 2017 when Labour wasn’t in power. Not a great look for Sir Keir to have yet another aide quit, in any case.

For the time Jeremy Corbyn ‘showed off’ a naked Diane Abbott to impress his political friends, click HERE.