A spin doctor for former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls is to continue his career in public relations for that nemesis of cabbies, the taxi-hailing service Uber.
Alex Belardinelli, head of comms for Balls in his failed leadership bid and later in his tenure as shadow chancellor, announced on Twitter that he would be spinning for the pioneering taxi service, which has been upsetting the taxi drivers’ union for some years.
Really pleased to say I will be joining the great team at @Uber next week as Head of Communications for @UberUK & @Uber_Ireland
— Alex Belardinelli (@abelardinelli) October 9, 2015
The move will no doubt prove further to irate cabbies that the old elite of Labour is no friend to unions, taxi drivers having stormed London’s City Hall in September in protest at mayor Boris Johnson’s lax treatment of Uber.
The taxi-hailing service has been criticised for undercutting the old guard in the British capital, and is facing regulatory action around the world over complaints about passenger safety and the working rights of its drivers – including in London.
Earlier this month the Right Dishonourable also reported that Bob Roberts, one of the trio of spin doctors that plotted former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s attacks on “predatory capitalism”, would be joining the comms department of the City of London, the seat of British finance.
Taxi drivers will no doubt hope that Belardinelli is as successful in his new berth as he was in the last – Balls having lost his Morley and Outwood seat in West Yorkshire in a moment that epitomised the tragedy of Labour’s general election night in May.
Image Credit – Alex Belardinelli, May 2015 on Daily Politics
