Angela Rayner secures £1million war chest to kick out Keir as former deputy PM’s allies say she’s ‘ready to go’ for leadership
Daily Mail
Records show she established The Office of Angela Rayner with her ex-chief of staff Nick Parrott. A former senior official at trade union Unite, Mr Parrott is regarded as the most effective organiser on Labour’s soft Left and is viewed with suspicion by Downing Street.
PR guru Mark Borkowski estimated that Ms Rayner could make £1 million from her memoir. She has also recently been given approval to take up a second job, with speaking agency Chartwell Speakers.
Michael Flatley made millions from being Lord of the Dance… but has his addiction to high living wiped out his fortune?
Daily Mail
After his rise to stardom, Flatley, who retired from dancing in 2016, went through a long list of handlers, including publicist Mark Borkowski.
Borkowski has a wry respect for the former client who left him to take on Hollywood. ‘I have worked with many famous people but Michael was a complete one-off,’ he says. ‘An extraordinary talent who built a phenomenal brand and kept it alive and he has made a huge amount of money from it.’
But he warned: ‘If you are going to work with Michael Flatley, you had better play by his rules. He is tough.’ As regards Flatley’s courtroom battles, Borkowski said: ‘We say in showbiz that where there is a hit, there is a writ. I think he misses the adulation of being on stage, the sense of showmanship and having adoring fans.
‘The show is his baby and if you are placing your child under the care of someone else, that is the problem.
Don’t do what Harry and Meghan did’ — celebrity crisis experts on the next moves for the Beckham family
AOL
PR specialist Mark Borkowski believes a dignified silence is the best strategy. “There’s a lot more going on than we are actually reading, and it’s his [Brooklyn’s] reaction to that,” he tells the Standard.
“In terms of managing this, you’ve got to have a huge amount of empathy for the person who is obviously in pain. And you 100 per cent don’t get involved with a PR war. You stay silent. I notice they have. They’re spending their time promoting Cruz’s gig at some club. It’s all business as normal for them.
“You’ve got to take the heat out of the situation and find back channels to individuals, to do some sort of reaching out, but this is not the time and it’s difficult when millions of newspapers and websites and podcasts will be feeding off this.”
As for what they will do? “I think they’ll try and put distance between it,” Borkowski says. “I think their first priority is to protect the other kids and to protect the brand and protect the ability for that brand to go on existing with all the sort of partnerships and relationships they have. They will not want to see negative PR, because that’ll put people off.
“What they will do… they’ve got some very good people who give them advice and I think they’ll be leaning on that advice. Unlike, you know, Meghan and Harry, they’ll be listening to people. I think that’s what they should do. [They should] find a way of actually being in rooms they’re not in, with their narrative of what the truth of this is about, [as well as] recognising that they don’t want to find a place where they never speak to their son again.”
https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/dont-harry-meghan-did-celebrity-101218878.html
‘Distraught’ Victoria and David Beckham to maintain a dignified silence after son Brooklyn’s ‘heartbreaking’ decision
Hello Mag
The leading public relations expert Mark Borkowski tells HELLO! that the family are now at a reputational crossroads, but he makes the case that the Beckhams have faced worse scandals and that there is hope the damage can be repaired.
“This cuts deeper because it punctures the one thing they curated more carefully than any global endorsement deal: the idea of the family as a perfectly functioning unit,” he says.
“Every crisis is an opportunity. That’s not PR hokum, it’s reputational physics. But opportunity only exists if you resist the instinct to perform. This is a family matter that wounds the narrative precisely because it’s intimate. Overexplain it and you turn hurt into content. Brief against it and you look managed where you should look human.
“The smartest move now is almost unfashionable: private empathy, public stillness. Handled properly, Brand Beckham doesn’t fracture. It matures. Handled badly, it becomes a soap opera with a balance sheet.”
The Beckham family feud is bending our minds
Financial Times
There is also a relief in seeing that money does not protect families from suffering. Mark Borkowski, a publicist who has worked with celebrities, says, “When a dynasty fractures, it exposes the limits of wealth as a protective force. There’s a quiet reassurance, too: if it’s difficult even with everything, perhaps struggle is simply part of the human condition.”
Unpicking ‘Brand Beckham’: The astonishing list of goods Victoria owns the rights to after trademarking the names of all four of her children – amid row over Brooklyn’s name rights
Daily Mail
PR agent and Brand expert Mark Borkowski told the Daily Mail that Brooklyn’s blistering attack will undoubtedly have had an effect on ‘Brand Beckham’, which was built on “unity, warmth and professionalism”.’
Mark explained: ‘This will be an existential crisis for the Beckhams. Even before with all the reports of the feud they made sure they were promoting the family by posting about Cruz’s music gig.
‘The problem is the Peltz’s are significant and ruthless businesspeople and they’ll be pretty good at exploiting Brooklyn if he wants to do something.
‘Now they can take an element of his brand and build on it – the same way Prince Harry did using his Windsor label with Meghan Markle.
‘Brooklyn is now in bed with one of the most powerful businessman in New York and America is a much bigger market for him.
‘As for the Peltz family, well they wouldn’t want a rogue Beckham brand flying around that they didn’t have control of.
‘They’re a successful family and they’d be looking at their son-in-law thinking “how can we create something with the Peltz brand”.
‘It’s a horrible family soap opera for the Beckhams and how they recover from this will be an ongoing conversation for sure.’
Brooklyn Beckham is criticised for ‘cosplaying as a self-made chef’ as vox-pop video video of him driving a £1m supercar goes viral
Daily Mail
PR agent and Brand expert Mark Borkowski told the Daily Mail that Brooklyn’s blistering attack will undoubtedly have had an effect on ‘Brand Beckham’, which was built on ‘unity, warmth and professionalism’.
Mark explained: ‘This will be an existential crisis for the Beckhams. Even before with all the reports of the feud they made sure they were promoting the family by posting about Cruz’s music gig.
‘The problem is the Peltz’s are significant and ruthless businesspeople and they’ll be pretty good at exploiting Brooklyn if he wants to do something.
‘Now they can take an element of his brand and build on it – the same way Prince Harry did using his Windsor label with Meghan Markle.
‘Brooklyn is now in bed with one of the most powerful businessmen in New York and America is a much bigger market for him.
‘As for the Peltz family, well they wouldn’t want a rogue Beckham brand flying around that they didn’t have control of.
‘They’re a successful family and they’d be looking at their son-in-law thinking “how can we create something with the Peltz brand”.
‘It’s a horrible family soap opera for the Beckhams and how they recover from this will be an ongoing conversation for sure.’
‘Don’t do what Harry and Meghan did’ — celebrity crisis experts on the Beckhams’ next move
The Standard
PR specialist Mark Borkowski believes a dignified silence is the best strategy. “There’s a lot more going on than we are actually reading, and it’s his [Brooklyn’s] reaction to that,” he tells the Standard.
“In terms of managing this, you’ve got to have a huge amount of empathy for the person who is obviously in pain. And you 100 per cent don’t get involved with a PR war. You stay silent. I notice they have. They’re spending their time promoting Cruz’s gig at some club. It’s all business as normal for them.
“You’ve got to take the heat out of the situation and find back channels to individuals, to do some sort of reaching out, but this is not the time and it’s difficult when millions of newspapers and websites and podcasts will be feeding off this.”
As for what they will do? “I think they’ll try and put distance between it,” Borkowski says. “I think their first priority is to protect the other kids and to protect the brand and protect the ability for that brand to go on existing with all the sort of partnerships and relationships they have. They will not want to see negative PR, because that’ll put people off.
“What they will do… they’ve got some very good people who give them advice and I think they’ll be leaning on that advice. Unlike, you know, Meghan and Harry, they’ll be listening to people. I think that’s what they should do. [They should] find a way of actually being in rooms they’re not in, with their narrative of what the truth of this is about, [as well as] recognising that they don’t want to find a place where they never speak to their son again.”
How should the Beckhams respond to Brooklyn’s bombshell? | The Standard
The bitter trademark row at the heart of the Beckham feud: Why ‘devastated’ Victoria bore the brunt of Brooklyn’s eviscerating statement that has left her ‘on the floor in pieces’
Daily Mail
PR agent and Brand expert Mark Borkowski told the Daily Mail that Brooklyn’s blistering attack will undoubtedly have had an effect on ‘Brand Beckham’, which was built on “unity, warmth and professionalism”.’
Mark explained: ‘This will be an existential crisis for the Beckhams. Even before with all the reports of the feud they made sure they were promoting the family by posting about Cruz’s music gig.
‘The problem is the Peltz’s are significant and ruthless businesspeople and they’ll be pretty good at exploiting Brooklyn if he wants to do something.
‘Now they can take an element of his brand and build on it – the same way Prince Harry did using his Windsor label with Meghan Markle.
‘Brooklyn is now in bed with one of the most powerful businessman in New York and America is a much bigger market for him.
‘As for the Peltz family, well they wouldn’t want a rogue Beckham brand flying around that they didn’t have control of.
‘They’re a successful family and they’d be looking at their son-in-law thinking “how can we create something with the Peltz brand”.
‘It’s a horrible family soap opera for the Beckhams and how they recover from this will be an ongoing conversation for sure.’
Unique: Kate Moss’ ‘subversive technique’ to move child Lila to designing superstardom
NY Morning Star
” Kate hasn’t pressed Lila into the spotlight– she’s crafted gravity around her. That’s the genuine proficiency. One definitive cultural minute to develop family tree and severity– the Style Italia cover did that in a single stroke– and after that, most importantly, she went back. No social-media stage-mother things and rubbish,” states the leading PR professional Mark Borkowski.
Who’s Really Winning? Experts Say Blake Lively Is ‘Way Up’ in One-Year Justin Baldoni Legal War (Exclusive)
US Weekly
WHO HAS THE ADVANTAGE IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION?
Mark Borkowski, PR expert:
Lively has controlled the narrative largely because Baldoni torched his own credibility early and then kept adding petrol. The NYT exposé froze him in the public imagination, and every subsequent overreach — the mega-lawsuits, the lawsuit website, the Swift subpoena — only reinforced the sense of a man fighting gravity. [In February 2025, Baldoni launched a website that features his amended complaint and a timeline of events; Swift was issued a subpoena in early May, but it was withdrawn shortly after.] Lively’s camp hasn’t been flawless, but they’ve been disciplined, consistent and professionally insulated. A year on, the broad perception hasn’t shifted: she looks strategic and steady; he looks like he’s still trying to claw back a story that slipped away long ago.
Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni: Who Has the Edge One Year Later (Excl) | Us Weekly
Darts has become the ‘Glastonbury of sport’ with Luke Littler the ‘new hero’ fuelling it
Daily Star
PR guru Mark Borkowski, who has worked with cricketer Ian Botham, pop king Michael Jackson and rock giants Led Zeppelin, said a ‘weird mixture of pantomime, cosplay and live sport’ had turned the game into a global sensation. Led by 18-year-old double world champion Luke Littler – an everyday hero all kids can dream of emulating – Mark said darts had ‘massive authenticity in an age of Instagram’.
Borkowski, who has also worked with Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin, warned Littler – who hit back at booing fans cheering on underdog Rob Cross in their fourth round clash this year – not to expect everyone to back him.
He said: “We talk about the upside of fame but very few people talk about the downsides. And the sophistication in managing fame, particularly in an age of a million cameras, is just so difficult.
“Whether it’s in industry, entrepreneurship, entertainment or sport, we build people up to kill them. Culturally that’s what British people do.
‘The Glastonbury of sport’: Luke Littler effect takes darts to new heights
The Guardian
The PR guru Mark Borkowski, who has worked with Ian Botham, Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin, among others, told the Guardian that it was a further sign that darts really has gone global. “The event has become the Glastonbury of sport, in a sense. It’s got that weird mixture of pantomime, cosplay and live sport,” he said. “The spectators know that they add so much to the event, turn up in their costumes, and boo and cheer along. Those in charge have done a remarkable job to create that spectacle.”
It helps, of course, that darts has struck gold with Littler: an everyman with an extraordinary talent. After his win over Van Veen, for instance, he also admitted that he had forgotten to eat until he arrived at Alexandra Palace, when he fuelled himself for the final with a margherita pizza. “All sports need new heroes, and of course, Littler is that new hero,” says Borkowski. “He is an extraordinary talent. But he could also be any kid from any street in Salford, Sheffield, Southampton. That’s part of his appeal.”
And the sport continues to grow. This year’s PDC world championships was staged in Alexandra Palace’s West Hall, which has a capacity of 3,200. Next year’s event will be in the Great Hall, which has room for more than 5,000 fans. The audience is getting younger and so are the players, with Littler attracting more kids to a sport with almost no barriers to entry. “In most sports they coach people to within an inch of their lives,” says Borkowski. “But darts has got massive authenticity in an age of Instagram. And there’s going to be a lot of talent out there looking at him and thinking, ‘I can do the same.’
However Borkowski, who has also worked with the likes of Macaulay Culkin and helped celebrities protect their reputations, warns that Littler will inevitably face a few bumpy moments as his popularity grows and some fans find his dominance boring. “We talk about the upside of fame, but very few people talk about the downsides,” he says. “And the sophistication in managing fame, particularly in an age of a million cameras, is just so difficult.”
The fact that Littler bit back at fans after being booed earlier in the tournament was a sign, Borkowski says, of how difficult that balance can be. “Whether it’s in industry, entrepreneurship, entertainment or sport, we build people up to kill them. Culturally, that’s what British people do. They distrust dominance,” he adds. “They don’t like success, especially when it arrives too quickly. It is a game of snakes and ladders.”
But having joined Gary Anderson, Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor to have won successive PDC World Championships, Borkowski hopes Littler will be given room to continue to thrive. “Littler will have a thousand brands crawling all over him, but there’ll be one or two who will think: ‘Let’s just see how he behaves’,” he says. “But I think he’ll come through it.”
Is Kim Kardashian’s star power fading, even as her multibillion-dollar brand Skims continues to grow?
SCMP Magazine
“The Kardashians are just not where the energy is at the moment,” says author and PR expert Mark Borkowski. “There are just too many young gunslingers in town and people want the new. It is the ravenous nature of the beast, and particularly when we are talking about under-30s – a group who might be interested in the Jenner sisters but won’t care much about the older three unless they do something really outrageous.”
Kim – ever the savvy brand expert – may well be right to let the show that made her name trot off into the sunset. “If the audience has had enough of them then the Kardashians probably need to refresh their content, as fashion moves on and trends change and if you keep on doing the exact same thing you always have you will inevitably become less relevant,” says Borkowski.
“I think every celebrity powerhouse has its moment that comes and fades,” says Borkowski. “But I wouldn’t be writing off the Kardashians just yet – I remembered being asked to comment on the death of the Beckham brand about a decade ago, but history has proved that is very much not the case. Much like the Beckhams, what the Kardashian-Jenners need to focus on is the younger members of the family, who have got the power to keep people’s attention in a way that older celebrities don’t.”
“They know what they are doing, as this is the number one way to rejuvenate the brand,” says Borkowski. “If you want people to notice you, have a juicy love life that looks glamorous and stirs up feelings of jealousy and sometimes a bit of outrage, all of which keep eyeballs on you.”
“You get so rich that you get lazy and a lot of people are now a lot hungrier than she is,” agrees Borkowski. “Don’t forget the amount of attention Kim got when she was in that relationship with Kanye – and returning to the spotlight means getting back on the outrage machine and everything that entails. If I were Kim, I’d be relieved life had quietened down a bit.”
When Prince William knew the ‘wheels are going to fall off with Harry’ ahead of ‘Megxit’ – and why he feared the ‘precedent’ set by the Sussexes would affect his children
Daily Mail
Mark Borkowski, one of the UK’s leading PR gurus and crisis managers, told the Daily Mail that the loss of Mr Holt and Ms Maines tops off a disastrous end to 2025 for the Sussexes’ ‘celebrity-led brand’.
They are firmly in ‘survival’ mode because of scandals and their own missteps, he said. He claims that in the modern world ‘reputation doesn’t unravel slowly. It buckles at speed’ – and this very much applies to them.
Sussex staff exodus is a sign Prince Harry and Meghan are ‘unravelling at speed’ – as couple lose 12th top aide
Daily Mail
Mark Borkowski, one of the UK’s leading PR gurus and crisis managers, says the loss of Holt and Maines tops off a disastrous end to 2025 for the Sussexes’ ‘celebrity-led brand’.
They are firmly in ‘survival’ mode because of scandals and their own missteps, he said. He claims that in the modern world ‘reputation doesn’t unravel slowly. It buckles at speed’ – and this very much applies to them.
On the recent PR blunders, Mr Borkowski said: ‘One viral misfire, one poorly timed quote, one tone-deaf lifestyle pivot, and suddenly the narrative outruns the strategy.
‘In celebrity-led brands, especially ones fuelled by moral narrative, the biggest danger isn’t hostility — it’s inconsistency.
‘Too many messages, too many intermediaries, too many half-thought-through gestures. Centralisation is less about ego and more about survival’.
The family feud tearing apart the Peaty-Ramsay wedding
The Telegraph
“It shows the toxicity of fame,” says PR expert Mark Borkowski. “With double the fame factor, as you’ve got here with Adam Peaty and the Ramsays, it’s double the pain. Dealing with a family feud on the eve of a wedding is bad enough, but it’s so much more wounding when it’s in the public domain. The fact that this has leaked shows a complete breakdown in trust.”
Perhaps Peaty’s moving from one very different social circle to another is a contributing factor to the current wedding rift. But whatever the cause, “the drama won’t just die down,” predicts Borkowski, “especially with so much attention on the big Christmas wedding and constant posts on social media. For any member of the family unused to this level of attention, or who doesn’t have the same resilience as Adam, it’s going to be hell.”
How Danny Dyer went from ‘broke and desperate’ to national treasure: 10 years ago his movie career was ‘straight-to-DVD’ – now he’s TV gold, earning millions and women love him despite his cheating past
Daily Mail
How Danny Dyer went from ‘broke and desperate’ to national treasure: 10 years ago his movie career was ‘straight-to-DVD’ – now he’s TV gold, earning millions and women love him despite his cheating past
And companies such as Sky, Paddy Power and Walkers are queuing up for him to represent their companies in their crucial Christmas and Black Friday campaigns – and have made him a millionaire.
PR guru Mark Borkowski says he is now a ‘national guilty pleasure’ and loved because he is too ‘authentic to be airbrushed’. Danny’s role as Jilly Cooper’s moral romantic Freddie Jones has also acted as an ‘aphrodisiac’, sex experts have said.
Rivals has won him another bumper payday and a legion of new fans including Queen Camilla, who with the King has enjoyed his company several times.
How Strictly’s Tess and Claudia became the nation’s sweethearts
The Telegraph
“It is about chemistry and they have it in buckets,” says PR expert Mark Borkowski. “At the time, we all thought Strictly was about Bruce – but as soon as Claudia arrived, she showed what a talented double act they were.” It worked because Winkleman tended to play for laughs and allowed the more autocue-dependent Daly to flourish as her “straight man” – but also because there was genuine affection between them, and neither was trying to steal the limelight. “They just didn’t project ego in the way men do and the audience warmed to that,” says Borkowski.
“It really was a radical move,” says Borkowski. “The BBC was under pressure to elevate more women to powerful roles and there was a strong female audience for Strictly, but still, it would have taken some institutional nerve to actually do it. I think the reason that they could pull it off was that there was the feeling that we had had enough of laddish chaos and it was absolutely true: they brought feminine serenity to the format – and pairing funny, clever Claudia with the smoothness of Tess was a brilliant move.”
“With time, Claudia and Tess started to really grow and develop the show,” adds Borkowski. “Their skill lies in the fact they are not omnipresent and aren’t irritating, and as a result, let the show evolve. Tess is very human and calm, is never flustered, and Claudia is her perfect foil: she has the humour and the insight and is incredibly authentic, and they have nurtured the sort of relationship that is rare in television.”
Even so, knowing she would be fronting the Scottish whodunnit didn’t stop the nation from mourning when the two women announced that this would be their last season on Strictly. “Claudia and Tess knew the format was struggling and had been wracked with the sort of scandals which would ultimately affect their brand, so nobody was surprised,” says Borkowski. “Claudia is the most successful star on television at the moment – The Traitors is a hell of a thing – and Tess couldn’t stay if Claudia went, so it had to end. But it has been delightful to watch and will be a very hard act to follow.” That it certainly will be.
How Strictly’s Tess and Claudia became the nation’s sweethearts
‘The craziest Elvis scandal yet’: John Travolta fathering his great-grandson
The Telegraph
“This is the craziest Elvis scandal yet,” says public relations consultant Mark Borkowski. “It has extreme soap opera value. Elvis was the first real pop icon, and there’s still a continuing fascination about him and his family. Add in another famous and eccentric figure like Travolta, and it’s a total three-ring circus. The more celebrity ingredients, the richer the cake.”
Yet bizarre stories related to Elvis do often take root in the public imagination, observes Borkowski. “He was ‘Elvis the myth’ back in his day, too – he had [promoter] Colonel Tom Parker, his Svengali, burnishing his legend. It was pure showmanship. Then there was the tragic way that Elvis’s life ended, with the weight gain, the drug-taking and his grim death on the toilet. It tainted his legacy, sadly.”
‘The craziest Elvis scandal yet’: John Travolta fathering his great-grandson