‘A class act’: Tim Allan, the former Blair ‘smoother’ recalled to Downing Street

Described as inscrutable and smart, the PR man has a job on his hands to turn around No 10’s communications effort

Tim Allan once acknowledged that under Tony Blair’s No 10 press operation it was a mistake that “spin doctors became the story”.

Now he is returning to Downing Street more than 25 years later at the request of Keir Starmer, and will be hoping to avoid that destiny that so many political press chiefs – from Alastair Campbell and Steve Hilton to Fiona Hill and Dominic Cummings – have faced.