The Prime Minister’s attempt to boost his image suffered a humiliating blow last night after it was disclosed that he struggled to find anyone to take on a plum post as an £80,000-a-year Downing Street spin-doctor.
A senior aide to David Miliband, favourite to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, turned down the job, saying his loyalty was to the Foreign Secretary.
And the political editor of a national newspaper also turned down the post – despite a personal plea by the Prime Minister to work for him.
Only slightly tee hee of course but very well done there to Simon Walters for managing to get through that piece without mentioning that his Daily Mail colleague, Mike Lea, has indeed gone off to be a Number 10 speechwriter.
I am surprised that the pay is as low as £80K. Does Brown really expect anyone to work for wages as low as that? It would be a thankless job that is going to last for at most six or seven months. I’d want many times more than that to put up with Brown’s toxic personality and psychotic rages.