Keir Starmer has this morning lost a second key aide in less than 24 hours. Tim Allan, No. 10’s communications director, has quit his post after barely five months in the role. In a short statement, Allan said: ‘I have decided to stand down to allow a new No. 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success.’ It means Downing Street is now missing both a permanent chief of staff and is looking for its fifth communications chief in 12 months.
Allan was a New Labour veteran, brought back to add some gravitas to Starmer’s struggling No. 10 team. He only entered government in September 2025, meaning he did not advise the Prime Minister in any official capacity on the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador back in 2024. But, having worked for Tony Blair from 1992 to 1998, Allan is a longtime friend and associate of Peter Mandelson. The Tories’ parliamentary manoeuvrings last week ensured that messages between Mandelson and the government have to be published. That Allan should quit now has led some within No. 10 to conclude that he was concerned about what further revelations might emerge in the coming days about his contact with the disgraced peer.
Two groups now have Keir Starmer’s fate in their hands. The first is his staff, many of whom were close to Morgan McSweeney, under whom they cut their teeth in opposition. Starmer has sought to reassure them by giving a speech this morning, praising McSweeney and declaring that the team are united by a ‘driving purpose’ of ‘public duty’. The second group is the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), whom Starmer is due to address tonight. ‘He’s going to have to give the speech of his life,’ said one MP eagerly awaiting the occasion. It was Boris Johnson who famously said, upon his exit, that ‘When the herd moves, it moves.’ Last week, ‘the herd’ – Starmer’s MPs – chose not to revolt en masse in the debate around Mandelson’s appointments. Could this be the week they now choose to do so?
For many, they are looking to senior colleagues to make the first move. As one Labour MP puts it, ‘staff going are one thing’, but the question among their colleagues is ‘who will be the first minister over the top?’ Various elements of the PLP are especially enraged at the apparent unwillingness of some senior colleagues to act. ‘They’re going to march out a load of local government candidates who are never going to come back,’ says one Labour source. ‘They’re supposed to be leaders.’ It was the double resignation of first Sajid Javid and then Rishi Sunak that broke the Johnson government. Who will be first to go this time?
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