Seumas Milne: Who is Jeremy Corbyn's hard left PR chief 'on leave' from the Guardian?

Jeremy Corbyn's new communications chief has all of the hallmarks of Britain's special adviser class. Seumas Milne was educated at the private Winchester College and went up to Oxford, where he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE).

The left-wing journalist, whose father (Alasdair) is a former director general of the BBC, also has a fine Fleet Street pedigree, having written for The Economist and worked as a comments editor for The Guardian.

Milne announced via Twitter on 20 October that he will be "on leave" from The Guardian to become Labour's executive director of strategy and communications starting 26 October.

Joining @jeremycorbyn's office next week as @UKLabour strategy & communications director, on leave from @guardian https://labour.org.uk/category/latest/press-release/

— Seumas Milne (@SeumasMilne) October 20, 2015

Delighted to welcome Seamus Milne to the team! Thanks Seamus!

— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) October 20, 2015

But the move has proven controversial in some quarters of the Labour Party, with activists raising concerns about his hard left views. The journalist described anti-US and UK fighters in Iraq as an "armed resistance" in 2004 and was allegedly a member of a pro-Stalinist group inside the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The was a joke about Seumas Milne when he was at university along the lines of him being such a Stalinist that he "had snow in his boots"

— James Bloodworth (@J_Bloodworth) October 20, 2015

More recently, Milne used a 2011 speech to accuse former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown of attempting to "rehabilitate colonialism" and accused the US of being behind a "world order" and the first "genuinely global empire in history".

He has apparently been appointed to help ensure that Corbyn receives "an effective press" ahead of the London Mayoral, Welsh, Scottish and local elections next year. The move comes after the foundation of Momentum, a pro-Cobyn pressure group independent of the leadership that will push for a "more democratic party".