While the departure of Keir Starmer’s comms director Tim Allan grabs headlines this morning, another key comms role in Number 10 has been vacant for around three months (and counting).
A job ad for the role of Prime Minister’s Official Spokesperson (PMOS), the most senior civil servant comms role in Downing Street, went live today. The most high-profile aspect of the role is running daily lobby briefings for journalists.
The Prime Minister's Deputy Official Spokesperson Tom Wells has been acting up to this role in recent months, since the previous incumbent left in November.
One source, speaking to In.Comms for a feature about the day-to-day reality of working in the No. 10 comms team, said it was understood that Allan, who was No. 10's executive director of comms, had been “casting a wide net” for a new PMOS, ahead of recruitment officially opening.
Allan was a special adviser (spad) as opposed to a civil servant and therefore did not officially have influence over recruitment to civil service roles. In practice, senior spads and civil servants may liaise closely on major decisions such as these.
The job ad
Applicants for the role are invited to apply by 24 February for the role, which may pay between £100,000 and £162,500, the ad says. The role is offered on “a fixed term appointment, loan or secondment basis” with an “anticipated assignment duration” of two years.
The recruitment process includes a ‘mock lobby’ on the week commencing 16 March, and a panel interview the following week, meaning that the role could feasibly have gone unfilled for close to six months by the time a new starter begins.
The candidate information pack quotes Dan York-Smith, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, saying: “The successful candidate will represent the Prime Minister at daily lobby briefings, provide trusted media advice at the most senior level, and oversee the full range of No. 10’s communications activity, from press to digital, planning and insight.
“I am looking for an experienced communications leader with the credibility and confidence to operate under intense pressure, grip complex and fast-moving issues, and distil them clearly and authoritatively. You will need to demonstrate sound judgement in the news cycle, personal resilience, and the ability to build trusted relationships with senior ministers, political advisers, officials, journalists, and colleagues across Government.”
The role is open to both civil servants and external applicants, although in recent years the vast majority have been internal hires.
Pares’ pay and people
The previous PMOS David (often ‘Dave’) Pares held the role from February 2024 until November 2025, when he became director of comms at HM Treasury - although a short biography of him on Gov.UK has still not been updated to note this change.
Cabinet Office data released in November showed that his salary was between £105,000 and £109,999, making him one of only five civil servants in No. 10 to earn six figures.
That data also shows that PMOS was the ‘reporting senior post’ for 28 full-time equivalent civil servant roles, earning a combined total of £1.57m, or £56,000 each on average.
Another 11 civil servants reported into the deputy PMOS, and four into the role of Speechwriter to the Prime Minister and Partnerships Team Lead, while a separate role, the Speechwriter to the Prime Minister, had no direct reports.
As part of our feature on what life is like in the No. 10 comms teams, one former PMOS told In.Comms that it was a “bone of contention” that Downing Street pay scales are less generous than those of other Government departments. A predecessor of Allan’s added that it was “weird” to be a comms director “without any firing or hiring power at all beyond a couple of spads”.