Fresh Blow For Keir Starmer As His Top Spin Doctor Quits
Keir Starmer’s director of communications has just resigned just one day after No.10′s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney stepped down.
In a statement, Tim Allan said: “I have decided to stand down to allow a new No10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success.”
The top spin doctor only started the job in September.
His replacement will be the fifth person to lead No.10′s communications operation since Starmer won the general election just 19 months ago.
Allan was deputy director of communications under Tony Blair and was expected to help steady the ship when the government was going through a rocky patch in September.
Labour sources suggest his resignation is all part of the ongoing fallout around the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The former US ambassador’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein emerged in full last week, prompting outrage across the country – and within Labour MPs.
Ex-chief of staff McSweeney took some of the blame for Mandelson’s appointment and resigned on Sunday afternoon.
In a statement, he said: “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself.
“When asked, I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.
“In public life responsibility must be owned when it matters most, not just when it is most convenient. In the circumstances, the only honourable course is to step aside.”
Starmer is set to address the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday evening, but speculation about just how long he can stay in post without his officials continues to rise.
Deputy chairman of the Tory Party, Matt Vickers, said: “The rats are abandoning the sinking ship that is Keir Starmer’s premiership. “Labour MPs should stop moaning and put him out of his misery. The country deserves so much better than this weak, chaotic government.
“The public is crying out for leadership with a backbone, a strong team and the clear plans to get Britain working again. That is Kemi Badenoch’s new Conservative Party.”