Lowick Hedry opens Manchester office led by former Labour North West director

Strategic communications consultancy Lowick Hedry has opened an office in Manchester, appointing Liam Didsbury, formerly the Labour Party’s North West Regional Director, as a partner to lead it.

In his regional director post, Didsbury ran Labour’s operation across the North West, overseeing campaigns and managing the party’s links with local stakeholders, councils and elected representatives. He spent 13 years at the centre of Labour politics in the region and has since advised clients on their political strategy and public relations.

Lowick Hedry’s clients include developers, investors, businesses and public bodies, which it advises on public affairs, planning communications, community engagement, crisis and reputation, and political intelligence. Manchester joins its existing offices in King’s Cross, London, and Cambridge.

The Manchester team will be responsible for the Liverpool and Manchester City Regions and for engagement with Number 10 North. The firm said a permanent North West base was needed as more decisions affecting its clients, on housing, transport, investment and regeneration, are now made locally.

Lowick Hedry co-founder and CEO Kevin McKeever said: “Few people understand North West politics like Liam. He ran Labour’s operation across the region and he has the relationships to match. He is the right person to build our business here.”

He added: “We set out to build an insurgent, confident and ambitious consultancy, one that helps clients through a period of real economic, political and technological change. More and more of that change is being shaped in the North West. Clients want advisers who are on the ground and who understand both the politics and the people. Manchester gives us that. It is the next step in building a national firm.”

Didsbury said: “Leading Labour’s work across the North West taught me how much gets done when politics, business and public services pull in the same direction. Lowick Hedry has the reputation, the expertise and the ambition to help organisations make that happen.”

He continued: “I’m joining to build the Manchester office from the ground up, across Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and wider North West, and to put that experience to work for our clients.”