This morning, at around 7.45, a strange thing happened on Radio 4’s Today programme. Tom Baldwin, who describes himself as a journalist and author, was being interviewed about the ongoing fallout over No 10’s drive-by on Health Secretary Wes Streeting and other Labour plotters.
As someone close to the Prime Minister – Baldwin wrote Keir Starmer’s biography – he was asked to explain the chaos.
Baldwin replied: ‘There are people who are employed [inside Downing Street] to do communications. I don’t believe they were part of this operation.’
Which was odd, because no one had asked him if he believed Starmer’s communications team was behind the briefing. The main culprit being blamed for yesterday’s psychodrama was Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff.
Later this morning a second report appeared, this time on Sky News. The station’s tenacious deputy political editor Sam Coates had an exclusive. He had learnt that Tim Allan, recently appointed as Keir Starmer’s executive director of communications, owns a 10 per cent share in a lobbying company called Strand Partners.
In addition, he discovered that Tom Baldwin was also employed by Strand Partners as their ‘strategic adviser’. Baldwin was employed, Coates disclosed, ‘to talk to clients about politics, but does not lobby for the firm’. There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by either man, he added.
But then came a fresh revelation. It emerged that one of Strand Partners’ clients is the British Horseracing Authority. And two weeks ago, it was reported the horseracing industry would be spared some significant tax rises in the upcoming Budget. Though some industry insiders believe it will still face a hit.
Tom Baldwin said on Radio 4’s Today programme that he did not believe the Prime Minister’s communications team was ‘part of this operation’
The main culprit being blamed for yesterday’s psychodrama was Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney, writes Dan Hodges
Whatever the reality, the report of the financial connection between the two men produced a visceral reaction from inside and outside Downing Street.
‘The two of them are thick as thieves,’ one No 10 source told me. ‘They are trying to change the whole direction of the Government. They want Keir to forget about Farage and Reform, and focus on appealing to the party’s liberal base. It’s an insane strategy.’
Both Allan and Baldwin are viewed with suspicion – and in some cases outright loathing – by long-standing members of Starmer’s inner circle. Allan, previously an adviser to Tony Blair, is regarded as a Johnny-come-lately to the Starmer project. And someone whose political instincts are attuned to the media landscape of the late 1990s, rather than the 21st century. He is also viewed as being partly responsible for the departure of Steph Driver, Starmer’s well respected ex-director of communications, in September shortly after the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson’s relations with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘He basically moved Steph out,’ a colleague claimed.
Baldwin is passionately disliked by Starmer loyalists. A regular visitor to No 10, other staff members are unclear about what his role in Starmer’s operation actually is. He likes to represent himself as the Prime Minister’s biographer and confidant. But as one insider told me, ‘he’s effectively wearing three hats. He claims he’s a journalist. But whenever he sits down with Keir he’s always trying to push political strategy. He’s desperate for a job with him. But then he’s also working for a lobbying company.’
Which is a problem, because within Labour circles Baldwin’s political judgment is notoriously suspect, a legacy of his time working as a senior adviser to Ed Miliband. According to one former colleague, ‘Tom was wrong about everything. Literally everything. He was totally dismissive of the threat posed by Ukip and Farage. He had no interest in Labour’s working class base. He used to tell people they had abandoned the party for good. He wanted to lead Ed down some yellow brick road with the Greens and the liberals and the progressives.’
Tim Allan, recently appointed as Keir Starmer’s executive director of communications, has been found to own a 10 per cent share in a lobbying company called Strand Partners
Baldwin’s defenders argue that Starmer values their relationship. And they claim the Prime Minister has not been well served by his official team. ‘It’s McSweeney and the others who got him into this mess, not Tom Baldwin’, one said to me.
Similarly, allies of Allan claim he chose to return to No 10 at a time when the Government was lurching from crisis to crisis, and there was not even a guarantee the Prime Minister would be remaining in post. ‘Tim had a lucrative career in lobbying. He didn’t need to do this. He’s certainly not decided to work for Keir Starmer because it’s a great career move.’
Which is true. But some of Starmer’s long-standing aides – and other senior Labour figures – believe there is another agenda at the heart of the Allan/Baldwin alliance. Both men are close to Alastair Campbell, who coincidentally also appeared on the Today programme to imply McSweeney was running his own strategy inside No 10, and should consider his position. Some insiders think the three of them are actively working to oust McSweeney and shift Starmer’s stance on an issue dear to all of their hearts – Brexit.
‘All three are passionate Remainers,’ a No 10 insider explained. ‘That’s their ultimate objective. They want to manoeuvre Keir into a place where he gives a commitment to hold a second referendum.’
A second insider said: ‘If you look at what’s happened since Tim Allan has come in, the line on Brexit has completely changed. Before, the strategy wasn’t to mention it. Now it’s to blame Brexit and Farage for everything. That’s all come directly from him and Baldwin and Alastair.’
All of which presages another nightmare for Keir Starmer. The split between his communications director and biographer and the rest of his inner circle shows this week’s divisions and in-fighting are only the start of the internal Government bloodletting.
It also reinforces Kemi Badenoch’s main charge at Prime Minister’s Questions that Keir Starmer has lost control of his team and his administration. And that his stance on major policies, such as Brexit, blows with the wind.
And that’s before you get to the stench of sleaze once again wafting up Downing Street. The BBC/Trump row partially insulated Sir Keir from the controversy over his rubber-stamping of the appointment of David Kogan as the independent football regulator, after Kogan had donated to his leadership campaign. But political attention is returning to the issue.
Now he has fresh questions to answer about Allan and Baldwin. Yesterday, Tory Chair Kevin Hollinrake called for a full and formal investigation by the Cabinet Office, saying: ‘I think the public need to see there are no conflicts of interest and no perceived conflicts of interests, and that’s not where we are right now.’
No. Where we are is with Keir Starmer facing yet another crisis of his own making. It was his decision to bring Tim Allan into Downing Street. It was his decision to allow Tom Baldwin access to his inner circle, even though he was working for a lobbying company that was actively seeking to influence Government policy. And it’s his decision to allow his stance on Brexit – one of the most significant issues of post-war British politics – to be shaped by a cabal of die-hard Remainers.
On the Today programme, Tom Baldwin said: ‘The damage of this story is we’re still talking about it 36 hours after it broke. We’re on the radio talking about spin and anonymous people on the sidelines and backroom advisers, rather than any of the things this Government is doing to try to change the country.’
Correct. And whose fault is that?