Guto Harri to be Boris' communications chief

Until recently he was at the BBC but left for Fleishman Hillard.  ConservativeHome has learnt that Mr Harri is going to be Boris Johnson's Communications Director.

Boris Johnson is putting together a high calibre team at City Hall.

OTHER KEY APPOINTMENTS

Nicholas Boles is Acting Chief of Staff

Ray Lewis is Deputy Mayor with responsibility for young people and opportunity.

Other appointments:

• Richard Barnes, Assembly Member, Statutory Deputy Mayor.
• Cllr Ian Clement who becomes Deputy Mayor, Government Relations;
• Kit Malthouse, Assembly Member, who becomes Deputy Mayor, Policing;
• Cllr Sir Simon Milton who becomes Senior Adviser, Planning.

Patience Wheatcroft to oversee full audit of City Hall finances.

11.15pm: Quick as a flash, Iain Dale has an interview with Guto Harri

Comments

[CCHQ Spy]

Good appointment.

[Simon Wentworth]

A new broom sweeps clean, and boy, is there a lot of old Labour filth to clean away.

[Richard Brett]

He was at the BBC - cue the usual tiresome whingers about perceived BBC bias...

Surely this man should not be allowed near Boris if he has previously been a servant to that corrupt den of socialist-liberal mavericks? He cannot be trusted. Could be a new Labour mole?

And so on, and so on.

[Liam in Preston]

Guto didn't strike me as a typical BBC type, but even if he did, I doubt Boris would reach out to anyone tainted by such obvious bias. A good appointment, I would say.

[Guto Bebb]

Interesting.

As a fellow Guto and a Welsh speaker I can confirm that Guto Harri did have a soft spot for Tony Blair and New Labour in the early years of the first New Labour government. This was especially true in relation to comments made in the Welsh Language weekly 'Y Cymro' where he had a column for a while.

However, he is a thoughtful and intelligent man and it has been apparent for a long time that he had a disdain for the New Labour spin machine (especially after the Iraq debacle).

A good appointment if you value an intelligent and open minded approach to politics.

[Norfolkblue]

Kit Malthouse - great appointment

[Londoner]

With regard to the way you have highlighted your link to the Guto H interview with Iain Dale - are you suggesting that Iain is a bit of a quick as a flash Harri?

GH never struck me particularly as a Tory sympathiser when he was at the BBC but that is all the better. People will see him working for Boris and think: "wow, if a Welsh speaking BBC man like that is working for a Tory, and one whom we liked when he was on TV to boot, they must be getting pretty sensible and grown up these days". If he goes back a long way with Boris - no bad thing as if his party ties are weak, his loyalty to Boris will be compensatingly strong.

[Fred Makepeace]

surely he's a lefty...watch this one. I foresee trouble ahead

[ACT]

He's not a lefty, but he *is* overpaid (nb the lack of disclosure on that point so far). Boris is already p*ssing away public money. If he actually believed any of the disingenuous garbage he spouted contra Ken during the campaign why exactly is he paying a very large salary (funded by your taxes, Londoners) for his PR chief? Why exactly can't a grade civil servant do whatever limited, politically circumspect publicity job is required? I thought the whole point of our great victory was that we weren't going to do things Ken's way any longer?

[ashley]

Good appointment

It also shows just how junior Boris's campaign team was with the exception of Crosby.

Also shows Boris deserves more credit than he has been given that he was elected despite such an inexperienced and junior campaign team.

Good that he is now being ruthless and not appointing them to the big job at City Hall!

[Guto Bebb]

Guto Harri gave an interesting interview on Radio Cymru this afternoon on the Welsh Language version of PM. Two points;

1. He clearly has a very high opinion of Boris
2. He spoke eloquently about the need for London to be a test bed for policies which will show the rest of the UK what a Conservative administration can deliver.

I thought that he was excellent!

[CCHQ Spy]

My hunch is that Guto will succeed Andy Coulson when Coulson returns to newspapers.