Boris Johnson has announced two new appointments to Downing Street in an attempt to try and steady the ship after a tumultuous week.
Number 10 announced on Saturday evening that journalist Guto Harri is joining Mr Johnson's team as director of communications. He was Mr Johnson's spokesman and chief of staff during his first term as London mayor.
Mr Harri, 55, is a former adviser to Mr Johnson and a committed Remainer who once criticised the Prime Minister's political style. He was previously the BBC's chief political correspondent and returned to broadcasting in 2018, working for S4C. Last year he quit GB News following a row over him taking the knee on air during a debate about racism directed at England football players.
Writing in the Sunday Times about his experience on GB News, the former broadcaster said: "I joined part-time but with an ongoing commitment, because I liked and trusted those in charge and supported the broad vision. But the channel is rapidly becoming an absurd parody of what it proclaimed to be. Rather than defending free speech and confronting cancel culture, it has set out to replicate it on the far right."
Born in Cardiff, Mr Harri studied at the University of Oxford and later took a postgraduate course in journalism at Cardiff University. Between working for Mr Johnson and for GB News, he became director of communications for News UK in 2012 following the fallout from the phone-hacking scandal.
In an alumni blog post on Cardiff University's website, Mr Harri described the role as a "shock to the system".
"I'm very proud of the part that I played in allowing those people to be journalists again and not be seen as phone hackers and corrupters of public life," he wrote.
Mr Harri said in the same post he was "surprised, disappointed and arguably distraught" about Mr Johnson's leadership of the Leave campaign. He said he held "very different views" on Brexit from his then-former boss and described leaving the EU as "a catastrophic act of self-harm for the UK".
In the same year, Mr Harri also took aim at Mr Johnson over a series of controversial remarks which he said were doing "enormous damage" to his former boss's political prospects. He accused Mr Johnson of "digging his political grave" and warned he would be "hugely divisive" as a Prime Minister.
He told BBC Radio 4's The Week in Westminster in 2018: "He was a huge unifying figure by the end of my time with him when the Olympics happened in London. There were people on left and right. He would not have been re-elected in a left leaning city like London if he hadn't appealed to the left. Now he's gone the other way. He's become more tribal, and tribal within the tribe, so that he would now be - if he were to become leader - a hugely divisive figure."
Mr Johnson said: "This week I promised change, so that we can get on with the job the British public elected us to do. We need to continue our recovery from the pandemic, help hundreds of thousands more people into work, and deliver our ambitious agenda to level up the entire country, improving people's opportunities regardless of where they're from.
"The changes I'm announcing to my senior team today will improve how No 10 operates, strengthen the role of my Cabinet and backbench colleagues, and accelerate our defining mission to level up the country."
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay will become the PM's chief of staff and will be "in charge of integrating the new Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Office, driving the Government's agenda more efficiently and ensuring it is better aligned with the Cabinet and backbenchers". More announcements are expected in the coming days with what No 10 said would be a "particular focus on improving engagement and liaison with MPs".
It comes after Mr Johnson lost five aides in the space of 24 hours as he faced battles on multiple fronts, including over his reaction to the partygate saga and his allegation over Sir Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile.
