Portland PR

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Portland is a PR firm founded in 2001 by Tim Allan, a former adviser to Tony Blair and director of corporate communications at BSkyB.

Background

Private Eye reports:

The knives are out for former Downing Street aide Tim Allan... and they are being wielded by Labour MPs. Although Allan left Number Ten in 2000 to pursue a living in PR after six years as Alastair Campbell's deputy, this hardly represented a career change - his influence seems to linger on.

Allan now runs Portland PR whose clients include BSkyB, for whom he briefly worked. Last December he leaked to New Labour's favourite hack Tom Baldwin a tape of Today programme presenter John Humphrys making unflattering comments about various government ministers at a private business seminar. The resulting media furore was a double coup for Allan since it embarrassed Sky's main rival, the Beeb, and created trouble for Humphrys, a long-time thorn in the side of Allan's friends in Downing Street

But Allan was himself the victim of a leak when, in February, documents advising Sky's head of communications Matthew Anderson on how to ingratiate himself with culture and media minister Tessa Jowell ended up in the papers (see Eye 1155).

Allan is also a close friend of pensions minister James Purnell - they were flatmates and Purnell was best man at Allan's wedding - who was identified in April as the man behind a story in the Guardian accusing Gordon Brown of trying to oust Tony Blair from power.

Now Labour backbenchers have started asking awkward questions about how far Allan's schmoozing of Whitehall really goes. In the last month, no fewer than nine questions have been tabled asking ministers 'what meetings officials in the [their] department have had with representatives of the public relations company Portland PR; what contracts Portland PR has with his Department and agencies for which he has responsibility; and what the nature of the contract is in each case'.

Most of the responses give nothing away ('The departments for which I am responsible do not maintain central lists of such meetings. Civil servants meet many people as part of the process of policy development and business delivery'), although leader of the House Jack Straw admits that two special advisers working for his predecessor Geoff Hoon had attended 'a summer garden party on 13 July 2005 hosted by Portland PR'.

What makes this development interesting is the identity of those tabling the questions, most of whom could never be bracketed in the 'awkward squad'. Leading the charge are key Gordon Brown allies Doug Henderson and Nick Brown. It was the latter who asked the prime minister, no less, what dealings his office had had with Portland.

An answer from Number Ten is still awaited. Allan's company has also been singled out in a Commons motion put down by former government whip Fraser Kemp, deploring Portland's role in preparing propaganda leaflets for Asda in a bid to persuade its workers to sign away their union negotiating rights. A tribunal fined the supermarket giant £850,000 for its actions, describing the leaflets as 'very hostile to trade unions, and highly disparaging of the process of collective bargaining'.

People

• Tim Allan
• Andrew Sholl
• Toby Orr
• Katie Thompson
• Claire Thom
• Lucy Aitkens
• Diane Barnes
• Diana Jackson

Notes

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