Sam Tarry has taken on an advisory role at Universal Music in a personal capacity working with the company to manage its relations with Westminster prior to Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister.

The appointment was arranged by Sir Lucian Grainge who leads Universal Music and includes overseeing the company’s dealings with government institutions.

Some of Sam Tarry’s advisory work is understood to have taken place from Admiralty House the grace and favour flat on Whitehall that was available to Rayner during her tenure as deputy prime minister.

Universal Music has been actively confronting technology firms over the use of copyrighted material in the development of AI and has filed lawsuits against some companies including Anthropic.

The company counts major artists among its roster including Taylor Swift Adele Ariana Grande and Bob Dylan and it has recently pulled music from TikTok over concerns about deepfake music before negotiating a new agreement that includes protections for artificial intelligence usage.

Universal is also engaged in a legal dispute with Drake who has filed a defamation lawsuit against the label following a diss track released by another rapper The company has publicly dismissed the lawsuit as baseless.

Sam Tarry previously served as the Labour MP for Ilford South before stepping down in 2024 This included time as shadow transport minister …