Former Sun editor David Dinsmore, who has held the post of chief operating officer of NewsUK since 2015, is being lined up to improve communications at the heart of the Labour government.
Mr Dinsmore, whose brother is an Edinburgh lawyer, has spent 10 years at the coal face at the Sun, Times and Sunday Times owner, reporting to Rupert Murdoch.
He was editor of the Scottish Sun in Glasgow between 2006 and 2010 after joining the paper as a trainee in 1990.
It will be a civil service appointment rather than a political adviser and he will be tasked with improving the government’s communications operation.
The role is separate to the No 10 director of communications and he is expected to replace Simon Baugh, who was the chief executive of the Government Communications Service.
The role is a new position called the permanent secretary for communications, created after the prime minister voiced concerns about government communications late last year.
His expected appointment to Downing Street was first reported by The Daily Telegraph.
David Yelland, another fomer Sun editor said Mr Dinsmore “will need to move fast to master politics, strategy and the digital piece… he is a sound man, you can trust him, has high personal values, impresses, these are priceless assets.”
Mr Dinsmore joins a list of former Fleet Street high flyers to take a top job in government.
Andy Coulson, the former editor of the now defunct News of the World, worked for David Cameron in opposition and then in Downing Street, before resigning as director of communications in 2011 over the phone-hacking scandal.
Alastair Campbell was political editor of the Daily Mirror before he became Tony Blair’s most senior communications adviser.
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