Tim Allan has quit as Sir Keir Starmer's fourth director of communications, having been brought in to Downing Street just five months ago to steady the ship.

He is a veteran of the New Labour years, starting his political career as a researcher for Tony Blair in 1992, rising to deputy press secretary when Blair was elected Labour leader in 1994.

After Labour won the 1997 general election, Allan followed Blair to Downing Street as his deputy director of communications under Alistair Campbell.

But he quickly moved to BSkyB to become its PR chief, and then set up public relations firm Portland in 2001, which grew to become of the country's leading consultancies.

He sold his majority stake in the company in 2012, but has continued as an investor in public affairs and media companies.

Allan joined the Starmer operation in September last year, with the PM no doubt hoping that his experience with New Labour and his expertise in communications would help steady the faltering No10 operation.

However, he has resigned after just five months in post "to allow a new Number 10 team to be built".

 Sir Keir Starmer's executive director of communications, Tim Allan, has resigned.

He said: "I have decided to stand down to allow a new Number 10 team to be built. 

"I wish the PM and his team every success."

Allan only took up the role in September last year and has served for around five months.

It follows the resignation of Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney yesterday.

Allan previously worked for Tony Blair, between 1992 and 1998.

The departure is a further blow for Starmer, who is already fighting for his premiership due to the growing furore over Peter Mandelson.

Allan is also the fourth director of communications to resign from Starmer's Downing Street.

Previous people in the role include:

• Matthew Doyle - quit March 2025
• James Lyons - quit September 2025
• Steph Driver - quit later in September after Allan became her boss

By Alix Culbertson, political reporter

In the midst of Number 10 turmoil and British citizen Jimmy Lai being sentenced to 20 years in jail in Hong Kong, the government has announced it is extending eligibility for its humanitarian visa scheme for Hong Kongers.

Adult children of British National (Overseas) passport holders who were under 18 years old when the UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997 will now be able to apply for the route independently of their parents.

Their partners and children will also be able to move to the UK, with the Home Office estimating 26,000 arrivals over the next five years.

The route was first opened in 2020 after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, with nearly 170,000 Hong Kongers having moved to the UK since then.

But the 1997 cut-off meant some people's children were eligible, yet their siblings were not. 

MPs have been campaigning for the change for at least two years, so the timing of today's announcement - hours after pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was sentenced - has prompted cynical accusations.

Timing is 'cynical indeed'

Mark Sabah, UK director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, told Paste BN: "No Hong Konger would accept the expansion of the BNO scheme over the freedom of Jimmy Lai and hundreds of other political prisoners.

"The timing of the announcement is cynical indeed. Coming after the trip to Beijing and on the day of Jimmy Lai's sentencing.

"It's almost as if the government thinks this announcement will improve their image regarding HK and China after the awful trip to China, which gained the UK nothing. But China still gets a mega embassy.

"Jimmy Lai is now officially a hero and martyr to many Hong Kongers as a result of this 20-year sentence - even to those who weren't fans of his.

"This announcement just exposes greater fear about how the UK is behaving towards Hong Kongers."

'We've campaigned for two years'

Hong Kong Watch, which campaigns for Hong Kongers and whose patron is the last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, said it was "sad" it has taken Lai's sentencing for the change.

"We have been raising this issue with the Home Office for over two years, and we are pleased that BNO families split by the eligibility gap will finally be able to reunite in the UK, " said Thomas Benson, senior policy and research adviser.

"It is sad, of course, that it has taken the sentencing of Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison for this move to be made, and he remains in our thoughts. 

"Nevertheless, for thousands of children of BNOs who have been separated from their families, unable to leave Hong Kong, this is heartwarming news, and we are pleased to see this gap in the BNO policy finally closed."

Lee Cain has said he feels sorry for Morgan McSweeney - but believes he was right to resign.

Speaking to Paste BN, the former director of communications to Boris Johnson says: "You do know what the job is when you go in. But I do have a huge amount of sympathy for him. 

"He's done an incredible job bringing Starmer and Labour back to an electable position. 

"But we can also see at the moment that- I think it's a sensible position he's in to resign.

"Fundamentally, I think it doesn't matter what advisers you have around you, if the PM themselves don't have the right judgement, you're always going to get into these situations."

Describing Johnson's own slow defenestration over PartyGate, Cain says Number 10 is "always very much like a court".

He explains: "You have an extreme sort of court politics. There's always different factions inside, all sort of vying for their own sort of power, their own sort of direction of where things were going.

"During my time, you could sort of feel that he [Johnson] wanted to take things in a certain trajectory, which I and others felt would be the wrong course and ultimately wouldn't deliver what we promised in 2019. 

"You can sort of feel now it's the same sort of thing. The sort of core team is now pretty much all gone around the PM. There's another iteration of 'let's have more grown-ups, let's have new people in' around it. 

"The crucial problem is, does the principal [Starmer] have the abilities and the political judgement to deliver, to navigate thing through? If they do, you won't have a problem. 

"But if you don't, and it looks very much like they don't, then it sort of becomes inevitable."

He also points out that in focus groups, "perception of him generally are incredibly poor... worse than I've seen of any prime minister in sort of a decade of doing these sort of things".

Cain adds: "It's always public opinion that drives political opinion. And the public lost faith with Keir Starmer a long time ago."

He concludes that he thinks the Tories and Reform would be most concerned if Starmer was replaced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting or "the dark horse... Al Carns".

On today's edition of Politics at Sam and Anne's...

The prime minister starts the week without his right-hand man – Morgan McSweeney – following his resignation over the appointment of Peter Mandelson but, has that secured Keir Starmer's survival? 

Sam and Anne mop up the reaction from Labour circles and break down a crucial 24 hours for the PM as he faces the markets.  

Will his own MPs restore confidence in his premiership after he addresses the Parliamentary Labour Party?  

The duo also consider the psychodrama and positions of the prime minister's potential challengers and whether any of them are in a more positive position as the new week starts. 

Kevin Hollinrake has insisted that Sir Keir Starmer is "just not fit to be prime minister of this country".

The chairman of the Conservative Party tells Paste BN that it was the right decision for the PM's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney to resign because "he was the advisor responsible" for encouraging Peter Mandelson's appointment.

"But ultimately, the buck doesn't stop there," he adds.

"It stops with the person actually making the decision. Keir Starmer can't blame everybody around him. He's got to take responsibility for his decisions in his judgement."

He explains: "I think the difficulties Keir Starmer faces are not just because of Peter Mandelson. He has made judgement after judgement that has been completely flawed. 

"I think there's 15 or 16 U-turns, many of which Kemi Badenoch has pressed to happen, on the winter fuel allowance, on things like [reforms] to child benefit, and welfare reforms, on the family farm, tax, on digital ID, all those things - U-turn time and time again. 

"Keir Starmer just not fit to be prime minister of this country."

But he adds, as his former colleague Robert Jenrick did a short while ago, that "this isn't a choice for me or for Kemi Badenoch or for any of my colleagues".

"This is a choice for the backbenchers of the Labour Party, and his ministers, all of whom have lost confidence in the prime minister," he says. 

Hollinrake adds: "We want this government to succeed. It clearly is not going to succeed because everybody's lost confidence in Keir Starmer."

Challenged that if this is the case then the Tories should be doing better, he responds by arguing that Badenoch is more popular than Starmer or Reform UK's Nigel Farage.

"We have a lots of work to do, I don't doubt that. But we are rebuilding. Kemi Badenoch is the right leader. She's a strong leader with backbone.

"We are making progress... and we'll continue to make progress over the coming months and years," he concludes.

 Away from the rumours around Sir Keir Starmer's future, the other big story in politics this morning is the jailing of Jimmy Lai. 

As we reported a little earlier, the British pro-democracy activist has been handed a 20-year prison sentence by authorities in Hong Kong after being found guilty of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and of publishing seditious materials.

It means the 78-year-old is likely to die in prison.

But his sentence follows Sir Keir Starmer's trip to China last month, the first by a British prime minister in eight years.

During that visit, Starmer met President Xi Jinping where he raised Lai's case - but it appears to have made no difference. 

Watch: Jimmy Lai's son speaks to Paste BN

Here's how politicians in Westminster have reacted to his sentence:

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said it is "tantamount to a life sentence" and that she is again calling on the authorities "to end his appalling ordeal and release him on humanitarian grounds, so that he may be reunited with his family".

She added: "The prime minister raised Mr Lai's case directly with President Xi during his visit. That has opened up discussion of our most acute concerns directly with the Chinese government, at the highest levels. 

"Following today's sentencing we will rapidly engage further on Mr Lai's case. We stand with the people of Hong Kong."

But Cooper's Conservative Party counterpart is more critical.

Dame Priti Patel responded: "The persecution, conviction and sentencing of Jimmy Lai by the Chinese Communist Party is an outrage.

"The prime minister Keir Starmer and the Labour government should be ashamed of themselves for not securing the release of Jimmy. 

"Spineless Starmer gave the Chinese Communist Party their super embassy spyhub [approved plans for the new embassy in London] and then went to Beijing to kowtow to President Xi begging for Chinese investment.

"While Starmer came back to Britain bragging about securing a deal for Labubu dolls, Jimmy languishes in prison. 

"Starmer's failure to stand up to Chinese threats has undermined our interests and our security and he now has no leverage to pressure the Chinese to release Jimmy."

The shadow foreign secretary insisted that the Tories will fight for Lai and continue to oppose the Chinese embassy.

Robert Jenrick has warned that the "prime minister has no authority" and that this means the public will be "let down very badly in the weeks and months to come".

The former Tory shadow justice secretary - who has since defected to Reform UK after being sacked - is now speaking to Paste BN following Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff resigning yesterday.

Reacting to that news, Jenrick says: "The government appears to be collapsing into chaos. 

"Now the prime minister has no authority. There's an outright revolt against him from his own members of parliament and the cabinet. 

"Nothing is going to happen now. Government will be brought to a standstill. I've seen this up close in previous Conservative governments. There'll be no agenda. The issues that people are facing in their daily lives - whether it's wages, energy bills, crime, immigration, the NHS - are all just going to go into stasis now and the public are going to be let down very badly in the weeks and the months to come."

But Jenrick adds that while he is "not here... to tell the Labour Party what they should or shouldn't do", he believes it "doesn't seem like he [Starmer] can continue".

He tells Paste BN: "This is what really matters here. You've had a failed Conservative government. I've been honest about that. 

"You've now clearly got a failing Labour government. It looks like the prime minister is on the way out, and there will be the farce of a leadership contest, and somebody else will come in, probably facing exactly the same challenges. 

"It will fail again. But people really want change in my country."

  A cabinet minister has defended the PM in a statement, given to Paste BN, in which they warned a leadership election would "break any trust the public has with us".

It follows Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigning. 

In a statement, given to our deputy political editor Sam Coates, the anonymous senior minister said:

You've got a leader who has admitted mistakes, but is rapidly still growing into the job. The alternative is to throw the dice without any certainty of what would come next. To take such a gamble would be to break any trust the public has with us because we're in government now, not opposition. In getting rid of Morgan, Keir has done something bold, this is the moment we align in the direction he sets as leader. You want to take over as leader and PM  from a position of success rather than taking over from a failing and bickering party. So everyone needs to be very careful now how they act.

Speaking on the Politics at Sam and Anne's podcast, Sam explains: "I think the point from this cabinet minister that he's trying to sort of nail home is that MPs who think things can't get worse can find themselves proved wrong. 

"Things can always, always, always, always get worse."

Sam has also revealed that Number 10 "did a ring round of people begging not to brief against the PM" last night.

He says: "That does not smell of mutually agreed, in the sense that Number 10 would want us to have it."

Downing Street has insisted that the two men mutually agreed that McSweeney would depart Number 10. 

But there are suggestions that the ex-chief of staff was reluctant to resign.

Sam continues: "Here's the truth. There are simply some people who are more loyal to McSweeney in this government than to Starmer.

"They are a little bit like [Boris Johnson chief of staff] Dominic Cummings acolytes, who felt that they were there as McSweeney loyalists. That's so dangerous."

You can listen to the episode in full below...

Sir Keir Starmer's position is "untenable", the leader of the opposition has said. 

Kemi Badenoch has hit out at the PM, saying claiming 'I was badly advised' "is not a good excuse for a leader".

Speaking to the BBC, she said: "Advisers advise, leaders decide. He made a bad decision, he should take responsibility for that.

"Peter Mandelson had been sacked twice for unethical behaviour. He is allowing someone else to carry the can for a decision that he chose to make.

"Keir Starmer promised a Government that would be whiter than white. 

"His position now is untenable, because if he thinks that bad advice is enough for Morgan McSweeney to go, then, yes, I think that makes his position untenable."