Spencer Livermore

From Powerbase
Revision as of 10:04, 10 May 2016 by Melissa Jones (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Twenty-pound-notes.jpg This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.
Revolving Door.jpg This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.


Spencer Livermore (Lord Livermore) is a lobbyist and political strategist who in May 2016 became a partner at 'international insight and strategy consultancy' Britain Thinks. [1]

Livermore is a former special adviser to Gordon Brown, working with him during his time as chancellor and briefly as Prime Minister, and also to Andrew Smith when he was shadow chief secretary to the treasury from 1999 to 2002.[2]

Livermore also worked for lobbying and PR firm Blue Rubicon from January 2009 until September 2014 and was campaign director for Labour MPs Douglas Alexander and Michael Dugher for the 2015 UK general election.

Background

Livermore was 'one of the few from Mr Brown’s inner circle to have remained at 11 Downing Street since the early years.[3] He went to Oxford University and the London School of Economics. [4]

Following Tony Blair’s resignation as Prime Minister on June 27 2007, Gordon Brown, as the new Leader of the Labour Party, became Prime Minister. Brown appointed Livermore to Number Ten as Director of Political Strategy, attending Cabinet meetings and becoming a key figure in the Prime Minister’s strategy for the next General Election. In December 2007, Brown reportedly reduced Livermore to tears over the on-off election fiasco. The experience apparently left Livermore "badly scarred", pushing him to the brink of resignation.[5]

Lobbying

After resigning as Brown's director of strategy, Livermore briefly worked for Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Group, before leaving to join Blue Rubicon as head of strategy and planning.[6] In 2012 he ran Blue Rubicon's strategy consultancy, Thirty Six Strategy, 'the consultancy was founded to apply political campaigning techniques to the boardroom'.[7]

Move back to politics

In October 2013 it was announced Livermore would once again be working as a special adviser to the Labour Party, this time to shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander and shadow Cabinet Office minster Michael Dugher. He replaced Tom Watson, who resigned following allegations in July 2013 that the Unite union had 'attempted to influence the vote for the next Labour candidate in Falkirk'.[7]


References

  1. Spencer Livermore, LinkedIn, 10 May 2016
  2. The Financial Times The Campaign Teams 7 May 2001
  3. Christopher Hope Brown's Kitchen Cabinet Costs £1m A year The Telegraph, 25 February 2007
  4. Denis Campbell Gays Who Shape Our New Britain The Guardian, 18 December 2005
  5. Simon Walters, Brown 'reduced top aide to tears' over poll fiasco, Daily Mail, 08.12.07, accessed 10.09.10
  6. Kate Nettleton Spencer Livermore quits SSF for Blue Rubicon Campaign Live, 9 January 2009, accessed 16 February 2015
  7. 7.0 7.1 Jonathan Tilley Blue Rubicon's Spencer Livermore to return to Labour Party, PR Week, 8 October 2013, accessed 16 February 2015