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Press chief's shares spark inquiry calls
The Guardian
|November 14, 2025
No 10 is facing calls for an investigation into whether Keir Starmer's communications chief should be allowed to hold shares in a lobbying firm and discuss politics with one of its consultants.
Tim Allan, who is one of Starmer's most senior aides, has a minority stake in Strand Partners, which critics claim could give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.
Allan does not gain any financial benefit from Strand while he is in No 10 but he has kept his shares in the firm, which has clients including the British Horseracing Authority, the energy companies Ovo Energy and Cadent Gas, and Netflix.
He is also friends with Tom Baldwin, a journalist, biographer of Starmer and former Labour adviser, who is a senior consultant for Strand.
This story is from the November 14, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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