A senior Downing Street aide has resigned after “sexually explicit” messages he wrote about Labour MP Diane Abbott were uncovered.

Number 10’s Director of Strategy Paul Ovenden quit on Monday when emails he sent in 2017 emerged.

The former Sunday newspaper journalist began working for Labour in 2014 and is a close ally of both the Prime Minister and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

Mr Ovenden resigned to avoid becoming “a distraction” to the government, which has been marred in scandal in recent weeks.

It is understood the emails were part of a cache of internal messages that were leaked in 2020 and showed senior Labour officials were openly plotting against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Who is Paul Ovenden?

Paul Ovenden was Sir Keir Starmer’s director of strategy at Number 10 from January this year until his resignation today. Mr Ovenden resigned after messages he sent making lurid sexual comments about former Labour MP Diane Abbott were leaked.

He started his career as a journalist, working at the Sunday Telegraph and Sky, before joining the Labour Party as a press officer under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2014. Mr Ovenden served as deputy director of communications at the beginning of Sir Keir’s leadership.

During his time working under Sir Keir, Mr Ovenden served as the party’s director of attack and rebuttal, which saw him take responsibility for sourcing information to damage the Conservative election campaign. In the role he simultaneously worked to defend Sir Keir from political and personal attacks in the media.

He also worked as a special advisor to Sir Keir from July 2024 until his resignation today after his explicit sexual messages about Diane Abbott were obtained by ITV News.

Mr Ovenden is said to have discussed comments two female staff members made about sex acts involving Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Ms Abbott.

A No 10 spokesperson said: "These messages are appalling and unacceptable. 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."

It is the latest blow to Sir Keir Starmer and comes as Labour MPs are reeling over high-profile sackings and resignations in recent weeks, including Angela Rayner who quit as Deputy Prime Minister following a tax scandal and Lord Peter Mandelson being fired a British Ambassador to the US over his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Labour is trailing Nigel Farage's Reform UK in public opinion polls and has lost a number of council by-elections since Sir Keir became Prime Minister last July.

A cabinet reshuffle last week saw several ministers sacked and a purge of the Home Office, which has been blamed for blocking reforms needed to stop small boats.

Labour suspended Ms Abbott from the party for a second time in July after she said she did not regret her past remarks she had made about racism.

At the time she said it was “obvious this Labour leadership wants me out”.

Speaking before Mr Ovenden’s resignation on Monday, Ms Abbott told Times Radio: “I don’t want to say that we should have a new leader tomorrow, but we know there are going to be a big set of elections in May, including Scotland and Wales.

“And we know that everybody is saying, not least Scottish and Welsh MPs, that we’re going to do badly in them. And I think if we do as badly as people say, well, it will be the case then that Starmer’s future as Labour leader and Labour prime minister will be over, really.”

Sir Keir on Monday said he would never have appointed Lord Peter Mandelson as the ambassador to the US if he had known the full extent of his relationship with paedophile financier Epstein.

The Prime Minister sacked Lord Mandelson last week but has faced questions about his judgment in appointing the peer, whose friendship with Epstein was public knowledge, in the first place.

Sir Keir gave public backing to Lord Mandelson at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday only to sack him the following day after the publication of email exchanges with Epstein.

The PM told broadcasters that Lord Mandelson went through a proper due diligence process before his appointment. But he added: "Had I known then what I know now, I'd have never appointed him."