Portland PR

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Back to Lobbying Portal

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

People

In September 2009 Conservative Party heavyweight Michael Portillo joined Portland as the agency set up a new high-level 'advisory council'. The two other advisory board members are Tony Ball and Sir Chris Powell.

A month later, in another coup for the agency, it also signed up the Sun's political editor George Pascoe-Watson, further strengthening its Tory credentials.

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

Former staff

• Henry de Zoete - now a special adviser to Education Secretary Michael Gove
• James Frayne - now Director of Communications at the UK Department for Education

Clients

In 2011 lobbying clients listed on the APPC register included:
British Bankers Association | AB-InBev | Apple | Association of British Bookmakers | Basic Element | BTA Bank | Cable and Wireless | Coca-Cola Enterprises | Coca-Cola Great Britain | Falcon and Associates | GazProm | Google | Halite Energy Group | McDonald’s | NetJets | NSPCC | Plan UK | SAB Miller | Tesco | The Government of Russia | The Scout Association | The Woodland Trust | Tullow Oil | UK Broadband | Virgin Media

Background

Private Eye reports in 2006:

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'.

Contact

Address: 1 Red Lion Court, London EC4A 3EB

Website: http://www.portland-communications.com/

Twitter: @PortlandComms

Notes

Back to Lobbying Portal