Boris Johnson aide Guto Harri poised to quit after Olympics

Harri is understood to have had an offer from News International, but a campaign source has suggested that he has not officially accepted the role as he wants to speak to Johnson first.

A spokesman for the Greater London Authority said: ‘All current Mayoral advisors' contracts come to an end this weekend. If Boris Johnson is re-elected, he will then decide on appointments to his top team. No decisions have yet been made.’

A well-placed source told PRWeek that Harri was set to take a role in Downing Street, but news of News International's approach has emerged today.

A spokeswoman for News International told PRWeek: ‘We have not appointed a director of comms and are not commenting on rumours.’

News International’s director of comms role has been left vacant since former interim comms director Andrew Honnor left to establish financial comms consultancy Greenbrook in February. Honnor replaced Simon Greenberg, who is on a 'permanent secondment' to NewsCorp's Management and Standards Committee.

Harri, a former BBC journalist, also briefly worked as a senior consultant at Fleishman-Hillard in 2008, before joining Johnson's campaign after just two months.