Editor of the BBC’s Daily & Sunday Politics show, Robbie Gibb, has been appointed as Theresa May’s new director of communications. Gibb replaces Katie Perrior, a former PR executive, who resigned as Mrs May’s director of communications when the Prime Minister called a snap general election in April.

Until his appointment, Gibb was also the executive editor of the Andrew Marr Show and This Week, and has been with the BBC for 23 years.

The BBC’s director of news, James Harding, said Gibb had been “an innovator in story-telling on television and an unrelenting advocate of the BBC, its independence and our public service role”.

“The signal quality he and his programmes have shown is the willingness to speak truth to power – I suspect it will come in handy,” he added.

The Downing Street director of communications position, has normally been held by a former newspaper or TV journalist.

Gibb’s brother is the Conservative MP and schools minister Nick Gibb.