Maurice Glasman and Morgan McSweeney: The Bannon-Inspired ‘Blue Labour’ Lobby Behind Shabana Mahmood

‘Blue Labour’ founder Lord Maurice Glasman – who reportedly met with Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff ahead of the Government’s announcement of its tough new asylum policy – told Byline Times that Steve Bannon is one of the greatest politicians of our age, just months before the former Trump campaign manager was linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

Prior to the more recent revelations of the closeness of Epstein and Bannon, the Labour peer said that Donald Trump’s former White House chief, Bannon, was one of the most important political figures of recent times because he had successfully built a nationalist working-class movement against mass immigration and globalisation in the United States. 

Asked about Bannon’s extreme views – such as those on Islam; his support for the AfD in Germany; and his claim during a far-right rally in France in 2018 that the crowd should “wear” accusations of racism, nativism, and xenophobia “as a badge of honour” – Glasman said “as the son of immigrants myself, I of course hate and disagree with these ideas”. 

“But, if we are to hold them off in Britain, we need a Blue Labour movement based on nationalist industrial revival,” he added.

The release by the US House Oversight Committee of emails from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein has revealed that Steve Bannon was one of Epstein’s most frequent visitors after his first conviction in 2008, but before his arrest in 2019 on suspicion of a much broader range of trafficking and sexual offences. 

In emails and text messages, Bannon – whose War Room podcast had often platformed QAnon conspiracies that the Democratic Party is run by a paedophile ring – seemed unconcerned with Epstein’s previous convictions, and planned with him how to fund and staff the extension of the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement to Europe.

Epstein is documented as advising him on who to meet in Europe, planning his itinerary in Paris and Rome, and giving him advice on how to keep the financial structures opaque. 

Among the topics discussed at that time were “Brexit” and the parliamentary tumult of Theresa May’s premiership in 2018, when Bannon claimed he was liaising with Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and Jacob Rees-Mogg on how to “overthrow” the Government. 

Farage has been a friend of Bannon’s since 2012, and in a now-deleted video in 2016, Farage thanked Bannon and his publishing outfit, Breitbart, following the Brexit vote: “Well done, Bannon. Well done, Breitbart. You’ve helped with this hugely.”

Glasman told this newspaper he was introduced to Bannon by Nigel Farage at Trump’s second inauguration in January, which he was invited to by Vice President JD Vance. 

Both Glasman and Farage are regulars on GB News, the channel co-owned by Sir Paul Marshall, which has recently launched a US-based show. It consistently frames the UK as in need of ‘saving’ by Trump’s America. 

In a recent interview with the broadcaster, the President reiterated his threat to sue the BBC for $1 billion over the editing of his speech on January 6, 2021, in a Panorama broadcast more than a year ago.

At Trump’s inauguration, Bannon took Glasman to a Trump rally, which the peer said had opened his eyes to the energy of the ‘MAGA’ movement. Glasman has since appeared on Bannon’s War Room podcast. He said he spoke to Bannon for several months after the inauguration. 

Glasman said he also talks regularly with Farage, whom he ranks alongside Bannon as one of the most influential political movers in this era. With his belief that the Labour Party under Keir Starmer is in the same state of terminal decline as the Conservative Party, Glasman claims the Reform UK Leader is providing a backstop to the far-right in the UK.

“The rise of this nationalist movement of the working-class is inevitable,” he told Byline Times. “It’s up to us in Britain to push back to prevent being hijacked by other disgusting ideas.”

Byline Times can reveal that Glasman was tasked by Morgan McSweeney to make contacts and connections in the Trump administration ahead of attending the inauguration.

According to a Sunday Times report this weekend, McSweeney – who supports the Blue Labour strategy – went to Millbank to see Glasman for an hour-and-a-half meeting during the recent Remembrance weekend, ahead of briefings against the Prime Minister’s leadership which then surfaced in the established press.

Appearing on a panel at this year’s Labour Conference, at an event hosted by Unherd (which, like GB News, is also owned by Marshall), Glasman had little that was positive to say about recent governments or ministers – with the one exception being the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood.

He praised Mahmood for commitment to stop the small boats crossing the Channel, “secure the borders”, and deal with the implementation of the European Convention of Human Rights – adding that, while he was “in favour of the rule of law”, he was not in favour of “the rule of lawyers”. 

Mahmood is tipped on the right of a party as a future leader and is understood to be backed by McSweeney.

She has announced today that, under the Government’s new plans, asylum seekers will be returned home if their country is deemed safe, and that the majority will have to wait 20 years to apply to settle permanently in the UK. Deportations will be sped up when claims are rejected, and those coming to the country could have their assets seized to fund their accommodation here, including jewellery.