unicornnews: Where next for fallen McBride?

As 10 Downing Street copes with the communication challenge created by the fall from grace of Damian McBride last weekend, PR Week has been wondering what the next career move might be for Gordon Brown’s former political adviser.

As a former Head Of Comms at the UK Treasury you’d normally expect McBride to find a senior PR job quite quickly, and given his high level links in government a well paid advisor role at one of the bigger public affairs agencies would usually make most sense.

However, it comes as no surprise that, given the circumstances of his departure – being caught planning a dirty tricks campaign to discredit senior Tories, mainly through the publication of scurrilous rumours on a new website – few consultancies are lining up to negotiate terms.

PR Week report that the public affairs agency bosses they spoke to “laughed off” the idea of hiring McBride, with the response of Hanover Communications MD Charles Lewington being typical: “I am loathed to kick a man when he is down but he demonstrated a clear lack of judgment and professionalism. I fear his reputation is so badly damaged that only a long period building churches in Rwanda will restore it”.

Of course, despite the PR challenge of being seen to employ someone at the centre of a political scandal, McBride remains very well connected, and some cynics might say that while agency chiefs laugh at the suggestion of hiring the disgraced number ten man now, some job offers may come forward once the media coverage of his emails dies down.

Though some insiders also point out that while the result of next year’s General Election remains too close to call, few will be willing to buy into McBride’s contacts network, which may not be so useful if the very politicians he tried to discredit are in power come next summer.

Posted Wednesday April 15 2009 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Political Communications Public Affairs