By Guy Adams
Like Tony Blair before them, Google has hired a "big gun" to help it spin away from a tight spot: New Labour's arch PR fixer, Tim Allan.
In conditions of near-secrecy, the world's largest internet company has employed Allan - Alastair Campbell's youthful former deputy - to put a shine back on its tarnished public image.
His firm, Portland PR, has been engaged to lobby both the British government and the national media, following Google's decision to allow the Chinese government to censor the content of its site.
Although exact details of the deal are unknown - neither side will talk, except to confirm they are "working together" - Allan, above, was apparently hired on the advice of Rachel Whetstone, a former colleague at Portland.
She left his team to work for Michael Howard at the last election before taking a job as head of communications at Google.
News of the appointment will be a bit cosy for some to stomach, since Google will now be able to count on a sympathetic reception from key figures from within both the Government and the Opposition.
It will also throw Allan's chequered past back into the spotlight, five months after he was accused of trying to make the BBC sack its Today programme presenter, John Humphrys.
That row blew up after Allan leaked a secret recording of an after-dinner speech - in which Humphrys made unflattering comments about Blairite politicians - to a Labour-supporting newspaper. |
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