Labour deny reports Jeremy Corbyn’s top adviser Seamus Milne is going back to the Guardian after speech-altering row
Reports suggest Guardian columnist-turned-spin doctor would be returning topaper after tumultuous year alongside leftie
LABOUR have been forced to deny reports one of Jeremy Corbyn's top advisers is to leave the leader’s team within days.
Reports have been circulating that Guardian columnist-turned-spin doctor Seamus Milne would be returning to the newspaper after a tumultuous year alongside the hapless leftie.
But aides are saying suggestions Mr Corbyn’s director of strategy and communications would be leaving as “untrue”.
He is currently in Liverpool at the Labour party conference, ahead of his boss’ keynote speech to supporters.
But Mr Milne was thrust from the backroom into the spotlight after he intervened to alter the autocue text of shadow defence secretary Clive Lewis's speech on Monday.
He removed a passage which appeared to rule out Mr Corbyn's favoured policy of scrapping the Trident nuclear deterrent.
It led to Mr Lewis reportedly punching a wall in frustration after he received news of the alteration as he sat on the stage about to deliver the speech.
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Speculation about Mr Milne’s future was fuelled when the task of briefing the press ahead of the leader's speech was delegated to a more junior member of staff on Tuesday.
It was originally reported he was on a 12-month secondment from The Guardian, where he is also associate editor, which would now be coming to an end.
It is believed he has been in talks with editor Katherine Viner about returning to the paper, but no terms have been agreed.
Staff are said to be unhappy about his potential return, after a year in which there have been hundreds of redundancies at the publication.
If Mr Milne is to leave Mr Corbyn’s team there has been speculation former BBC and Channel 4 journalist Paul Mason would take over, but he has rebuffed such suggestions.