Healey Hires Manifesto Author Athwal Ahead of October Budget
Chancellor John Healey has hired Ravinder Athwal, the writer of Labour's 2024 election manifesto, as a senior special adviser in the Treasury.
Healey recruited Athwal from the business advisory group Flint Global, with the appointment reported on 25 September 2026. The Guardian
Athwal is expected to start in the Treasury post next week. That would place him inside the department about a month before Healey's first budget, scheduled for 28 October.
Athwal brings a combined civil service and political profile. He is a Cambridge economics graduate. Before joining Labour, he was a Treasury civil servant and rose to head of growth strategy, the unit focused on expanding the economy.
He then spent five years working for Keir Starmer's Labour after serving as a Treasury official, according to a May 2025 account. POLITICO That period included service as a senior economic adviser in Starmer's Downing Street team. He left that Downing Street role after a year to join Flint Global.
At Flint, Athwal was a London-based Specialist Partner. His listed expertise was Global Markets and Investor Advisory and Policy and Political Analysis. Flint Global The firm said he advised clients on UK policy, political, economic and regulatory issues. Flint Global
Healey took over at the UK Treasury in July. He had already hired Will Straw as his chief of staff. Government disclosures published in July 2025 listed Athwal as a pay band 3 special adviser with salary of £115,000 to £119,999, the grading attached to his previous Whitehall service. GOV.UK
The broader context here is timing. A late-September appointment with an October budget leaves little room for induction. It points to a recruit chosen for immediate utility in budget preparation rather than a longer-term policy rebuild.
Looking at what this means for Healey's Treasury, the choice favours continuity and drafting memory. Manifesto authors carry detailed knowledge of commitments, costing assumptions and the language used to sell them. It is like bringing the recipe writer into the kitchen. In the run-up to a fiscal event — a budget or tax statement — special advisers and officials must turn political intent into measures that can be costed, tables that show who gains or loses, and clear communication lines. Athwal has sat on both sides of that exchange, as head of growth strategy inside the Treasury and as an economic adviser in No 10.
In my view, two questions will shape how to read the appointment. The first is function. A senior special adviser arriving weeks before a budget is likely to be concentrated on narrative coherence, stakeholder handling and internal challenge, not on constructing frameworks from scratch. The second is signalling. Bringing back the manifesto writer links the October package directly to the 2024 mandate. That can aid discipline inside government. It also narrows room for reinterpretation if fiscal choices prove contentious.
For what comes next, what to watch is operational. Start date, clearance into budget meetings, and whether Athwal takes a public-facing role in explaining decisions will indicate how central the post is intended to be.
