Senior Starmer aide to stand down

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Sir Keir Starmer’s director of communications Matthew Doyle is to step down from his role after just nine months in the post.

The 49-year-old served as a special adviser to former prime minister Tony Blair and led communications for Liz Kendall’s leadership campaign in 2015.

Doyle wrote in a letter to colleagues in Downing Street that “when I started working for Keir four years ago, not many people thought we could win a general election and certainly not in the emphatic way we did”.

He added: “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,” he wrote, adding “now it’s time to pass the baton on”.

He is the latest member of Starmer’s staff to leave, after chief of staff Sue Gray departed last October following months of negative press about her leadership within Downing Street.

James Lyons, a former journalist who was previously head of communications at tech group TikTok, will take over from Doyle.

Lyons was brought into Number 10 late last year to work on strategic communications as the then-new Labour government was battling a number of communications battles, particularly around the acceptance of freebies, many from Labour donor and peer Waheed Alli.

Doyle’s departure was first reported by the Guardian.