Darren Murphy
Murphy became Kyle’s first confirmed special adviser in July after helping him with media on the election trail. His new role sees him responsible for shepherding Kyle through online safety and cyber policy.
Murphy is one of the few members of Kyle’s inner circle to boast previous government experience, having spent eight years as a SpAd in the Blair government between 1997 and 2005, before embarking on various political strategy and comms gigs. More recently, he’s been teaching at the University of Birmingham, where he completed a PhD on “the causal mechanisms generating cross-community ratification of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.”
Billy French
At the other end of his career is Billy French, Kyle’s young but long-serving adviser who was rewarded with a SpAd role focusing on AI and growth policy. French, who first worked with Kyle when he held the shadow Northern Ireland brief, goes wherever Kyle goes. Kyle’s media SpAd is Nicola Bartlett, who worked for Yvette Cooper while Labour were in opposition and before that was a journalist at the Mirror.
The influencers
Kirsty Innes
Innes is head of tech policy at the influential Labour Together think tank. When Labour were in opposition she wrote the party’s AI policy, giving it a firm focus on near-term risks and opportunities, according to multiple insiders. It’ll be interesting to see how much of this survives contact with the civil service when an AI Bill is published.
Innes herself spent a decade in the civil service, including the Treasury, before joining the Tony Blair Institute and subsequently Labour Together. A Starmerite project, the think tank is particularly close to Labour’s campaign director Morgan McSweeney, who was its director between 2017 and 2020, and is now helmed by former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth.
Neil Ross
Ross is associate director of policy at leading industry body TechUK, and has the ear and respect of DSIT civil servants, SpAds and Labour MPs needing to know more about tech policy.