Prime Minister’s director of communications Matthew Doyle ‘to quit’

Matthew Doyle, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, is reportedly standing down after nine months in Downing Street.

The Guardian reports that the senior special adviser is leaving his post after feeling he had stabilised the government’s communications strategy.

He is the second senior member of Keir Starmer’s team to be in office for less than a year, following Sue Gray’s departure as chief of staff last year.

In an email seen by The Guardian, Doyle reportedly wrote: “I am incredibly proud of the part I have played in returning our party to government and the change we are already bringing to the country. Now it’s time to pass the baton on.”

It is reported that former NHS and TikTok communications chief James Lyons will become director of communications (strategy), with deputy communications director Steph Driver set to be elevated to director of communications (delivery).

Read more of our Spring Statement news and analysis:

• ‘Ill thought out’ or ‘strong performance’? Reeves’ Spring Statement divides MPs
• Reeves under fire from Labour’s three biggest unions
• List of councillors quitting over welfare amid further cuts
• The four Labour achievements Reeves is trumpeting
• MPs: ‘Let’s soothe the nation, not kick it in the teeth’
• Reeves ‘confident’ civil service could cut 10,000 roles as Blunkett decries fiscal rules

And read more commentary on the Spring Statement:

• ‘Why not draft in Martin Lewis to fill the fiscal hole?’
• ‘Ministers must reject failed Tory orthodoxies of the past and put people before profit again’
• ‘The Chancellor must not make foreign aid cuts worse’
• ‘People want New Labour-style spending now. Here’s why it’s just not possible’

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