Polly Mackenzie
Polly Mackenzie is a senior policy and strategy adviser for Nick Clegg. [1] For this role, Mackenzie is paid an annual salary of £80,000. [2]
Background
Raised in Builth Wells, Cambridge graduate Mackenzie is a former journalist for Property Week Magazine and the daughter of Powys County Councillor Maureen Mackenzie.[3]
29 year old Mackenzie was formerly Senior Strategy Adviser in the office of Prime Minister David Cameron.[4]
She is currently head of strategic policy for the Liberal Democrats and Nick Clegg’s chief speech-writer[5], and is Clegg's "second pair of eyes and ears in the Number 10 bunker".[6]
In an interview in April 2010, Mackenzie commented:
- I don't have friends in the other parties. Most of my mates just aren't very political, although I did date someone from the Labour Party once. It was awful. We had an argument about human rights and it didn't go any further! But I'm perfectly capable of talking to someone who's not a Lib Dem - even someone from the Conservative Party![7]
This open-mindedness proved fortunate, as Mackenzie was appointed Senior Strategy Adviser in the Coalition Government, requiring that she develop a "closeness" (replicating that of the "Cleggeron relationship") in her work alongside Tory spindoctor Steve Hilton.[8]
In 2009 it was reported in The Independent that "Party bigwigs are encouraging her to stand for Parliament".[9] In an interview in May 2010, she was "not ruling out a future political career for herself".[10]
Contact, Resources, Notes
Contact
Twitter: http://twitter.com/pollymackenzie
Notes
- ↑ Iain Dale 50 Most influential Lib Dems The Telegraph, 17 Sep 2013, Accessed 9/9/14
- ↑ Special advisers in post, 30 November 2014 GOV.UK, accessed 28 April 2015
- ↑ Richard Jones, "'Cleggmania's no surprise to me' - meet the Lib Dem speechwriter from Powys", County Times, 06.05.10, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Department of Information Services, "Parliamentary Information List", accessed 07.09.10
- ↑ Richard Jones, "'Cleggmania's no surprise to me' - meet the Lib Dem speechwriter from Powys", County Times, 06.05.10, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Staff writers, "Insider's Guide: Number 10 comms - Who's who in Number 10 bunker", Media Week, 08.07.10, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Laura Millar, "Meet the most important women in politics - and no it's not the wives! ", News of the World, 25.04.10, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Anne McElvoy, "Nick Clegg finds it’s lonely at the top, even for a temp", London Evening Standard, 25.08.10, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Iain Dale, "Top 50 most influential Liberal Democrats: 25-1", The Telegraph, 22.09.09, accessed 08.09.10
- ↑ Richard Jones, "'Cleggmania's no surprise to me' - meet the Lib Dem speechwriter from Powys", County Times, 06.05.10, accessed 08.09.10
