Another top No 10 aide quits in fresh blow to PM

Sir Keir Starmer has lost another top aide after his head of communications confirmed she is leaving Downing Street on the eve of Labour’s conference.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Steph Driver is the latest of several of the prime minister's closest staff to depart No 10 in recent weeks.

She follows Paul Ovenden, who stepped down earlier this month over a series of sexually explicit messages he had exchanged about Labour's Diane Abbott.

The PM also lost his ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, in the scandal surrounding his links with Jeffrey Epstein, and his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, when she resigned over her tax affairs.

Sir Keir's communications chief Matthew Doyle, whom Ms Driver worked under as his deputy, quit earlier this year after a series of mishaps that followed the general election.

James Lyons, a former TikTok executive who worked alongside Ms Driver after Mr Doyle's departure, also left in September after less than a year in the job.