Luke Tryl

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

Luke Tryl is a Conservative Party activist and lobbyist who was appointed special adviser to the UK education secretary and equalities minister Nicky Morgan in July 2014.

He has previously worked for the free market think-tank Reform and the lobbying firm Tetra Strategy.

Background

According to his profile at Tetra Strategy, Tryl has ‘worked on local, national and European campaigns on behalf of the Conservative Party and has been both a campaign co-ordinator and candidate’.

He stood unsuccessfully in the May 2010 local elections as a Conservative candidate for the Knight’s Hill ward of Lambeth, south London.

Tryl has written articles for the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail and ConservativeHome. He has also worked as a head of education at gay rights charity Stonewall.

Invited BNP leader to Oxford Union

Tryl was President of the Oxford Union in autumn 2007 while a student at university there. He sparked controversy by inviting BNP leader Nick Griffin and convicted Holocaust denier David Irving, to speak at the union in a debate on free speech.

The invitation was condemned by the president of the Oxford University Student Union and race equalities watchdog Trevor Phillips. The university's Muslim and Jewish also opposed the invitation. Tory MP Julian Lewis resigned his life membership of the union in protest, calling it ‘very foolish and counter-productive decision - a thoughtless and self-indulgent decision’ and stating: ‘It's not an issue of free speech to offer someone a privileged platform from a prestige organisation.’

The attendance at the union of Griffin and Irving on 27 November 2007 was met by angry protests. Tryl said: ‘I think fascism is awful and abhorrent, but the way to take on fascism is through debate. We had David Irving and Nick Griffin, both challenged and subjected to the proper scrutiny of students.’