When he walked into Downing Street five months ago as Boris Johnson’s communications director, Guto Harri drew attention to himself with an interview that described his new boss as “not a complete clown”.
Now, in the postmortem and recriminations that inevitably follow any prime minister’s downfall, fingers are pointing at Harri over a tenure some describe as almost as gaffe-prone as that of his boss.
He was also one of the last people urging Johnson to “stay and fight” on Wednesday night as it became clear dozens of ministers had quit and Johnson’s government was crumbling before their eyes.
“He’s been nothing if not loyal to Boris, at least while on the payroll. He’s done the best, loyally, he could do. But there’s been tactical misjudgements and he just loves briefing,” said one Tory aide who witnessed Harri’s modus operandi.
“To be fair to him, he inherited the job when government comms was pretty troubled, and it would have been an extraordinary job if he had been able to turn around the ship at that point.”
Journalists have found Harri, who was also a communications adviser to Johnson during his London mayoralty, to be more personable and charming than some government spinners – and happy to pick up the phone. Many have also appreciated the colourful quotes he has given for their stories, some of which may have been inadvisable from a PR perspective.
“He’s a very charming guy and I have a soft spot for him, but I’m never sure how seriously he takes the job,” said one senior broadcast reporter who has known Harri for decades. Friends of Harri say he would wished to be judged principally by political journalists, and that they respect him.
However, those who know him from No 10 and as special advisers react with eye-rolls when asked about his work for Johnson, describing him as too casual and relaxed about the communications job.
Harri was contrasted by one government aide with another figure – deputy chief of staff David Canzini – brought in as part of attempts at a “reset” of operations in No 10. The aide claimed Harri was “a total clown” while Canzini had been very effective, and compared the two men to the cartoon characters Pinky and the Brain.
At a Spectator party on Thursday night, with tensions high over Johnson’s resignation, Harri was confronted by Josh Grimstone, a special adviser to Michael Gove, over the circumstances of Johnson’s “revenge” sacking of the levelling up secretary.
A former PR for Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, Harri has had moments of effectiveness in Downing Street. Privately, he has taken credit for killing the Times story that alleged Johnson tried to appoint his then girlfriend Carrie to a £100,000 job at the Foreign Office, after it was pulled from the newspaper for its second edition.
While some senior Conservative MPs rate Harri for taking some of the toxicity out of No 10 since the Dominic Cummings era – and supporters say he successfully pivoted Johnson towards more broadcast exposure and outlets with mass appeal – others blame him for contributing to the sense of chaos around Johnson’s communications.
A flashpoint for this was the Chris Pincher affair when Harri briefed the No 10 press team that the former deputy chief whip was vulnerable amid claims of drunken groping, and drew a comparison with the suicide of Iraq war weapons expert David Kelly. This comment went down so badly that it was subsequently leaked.
There was also anger among Tory MPs over the handling of Johnson’s impromptu trip to Ukraine last month, which meant he failed to turn up to the Northern Research Group conference in Doncaster. While the media were being briefed by Harri from early in the day that Johnson would miss the event as he was in Ukraine, Tory MPs were being told until lunchtime to expect the prime minister to attend.
“If you were to pin the car crash of Doncaster on someone creating an unnecessary process story which overshadowed and pissed off colleagues, it’s all Guto,” a source said.
The source added: “Guto clearly thinks he’s a passenger and is just there for the ride. He has a nice looking CV, history with the PM and seems to tick all the boxes. But from a political management perspective, he hasn’t got a clue.”
Harri’s previous business relationships have also come under scrutiny since he came into No 10. He was nicknamed “Huawei Harri” for joining from Hawthorn Advisers, a PR firm that lobbied for the Chinese technology company. Several other Hawthorn staff members later joined the press office.
Harri is said to have alienated already frustrated special advisers at a meeting last month, where he told them to be as good at getting out the government’s message as briefing the press about the contents of the meeting. “It was probably intended to sound self-effacing and be a bit of realpolitik, but it just ended up tarring the room full of people as duplicitous shits,” said one attender.
However, one of the clearest examples of Harri’s MO came during Johnson’s trip to the G7 and Nato summits, when he caused a storm over defence spending.
After Johnson’s civil service spokesperson briefed journalists at a hotel in the Austrian Tirol across the border from the G7 gathering in Bavaria, Harri sat in silence before intervening in a discussion about whether Johnson could stick to a pledge to increase the defence budget above inflation, as promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.
There was a need for “a reality check” on promises made before the Covid pandemic and near-10% inflation, Harri said. As reporters scribbled quotes in their pads, Johnson’s official spokesperson stared up at the ceiling, grimly aware that a damaging news story had been created. The row dogged the rest of the trip, requiring Johnson to use his final press conference at Nato to promise a rise in the defence budget towards 2.5% of GDP.
Harri was approached for comment.
