Difference between revisions of "New Labour: Special Advisers"

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[[Special Advisers]] are employed by UK government departments outside the normal civil service hierarchy. Whilst there have been Special Advisers employed by Governments in the past, their numbers have increased by a huge amount under Tony Blair, rising to a total of 80 in November 2001. Tony Blair has 29, mainly in the new Downing Street Policy Directorate and his Strategic Communications Unit.
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#redirect [[UK Government Special Advisers]]
 
 
The bill for these Advisers was £4.4 million in 2001, making the average salary nearly £60,000. The total salary bill for Tony Blair's private office was £10.8 million in 1999. The pay of most Advisers is kept secret, but it is known that both [[Alastair Campbell]], Blair's Press Secretary and Jonathon Powell, Downing Street Chief of Staff, are paid more than £120,000.
 
 
Although Advisers like Alastair Campbell hold a huge amount of power, none of them are elected and very few of their jobs are advertised - they are all political appointees.
 
 
 
Many former advisers to the Labour Party have moved on to very well-paid jobs with lobbying and PR companies. [[Tim Allan]], a former Downing Street Adviser, became Director of Corporate Communications for Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB. [[Anji Hunter]], Tony Blair's former 'Gatekeeper' private secretary, took over as Director of Communications at BP on a salary of £200,000.
 
 
Like the majority of the Labour Government, most of the Special Advisers have been to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Several Advisers have been friends with senior Labour Party figures for many years, others are partners of millionaires or bosses and all come from a self-perpetuating middle class elite that thrives on patronage, using it to by-pass the grubby world of democracy and slip into positions of power and influence. When the 2001 election was called, most of the Government's Special Advisers resigned, mainly to work in the election campaign. Most returned to their jobs, although some lost their patron Minister in the June 2001 reshuffle and moved into the private sector. For full details, check out the new Former Advisers section.
 
 
Some advisers have now moved on to safe Labour seats, vacated by long-standing MPs who were given peerages to get them out of the way, including [[David Milliband]], [[James Purnell]] and [[Andy Burnham]], all former members of the [[Downing Street Policy Unit]].
 
==Advisers==
 
*[[Ed Balls]]
 
*[[Ed Miliband]]
 
*[[Sue Nye]]
 
*[[Ian Austin]]
 
 
 
 
 
Spencer Livermore
 
Worked in Gordon Brown's Economics Secretariat before the 1997 election and as political adviser to Andrew Smith when he was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, now Special Adviser to the Chief Secretary of the Treasury. He went to Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
 
 
 
Nicola Murphy
 
Special Adviser to the Chief Secretary of the Treasury. Former Chief Political Research Officer for the Labour Party.
 
 
Treasury Council of Economic Advisers
 
 
Chris Wales
 
A former City accountant who secretly worked with Ed Balls before the 1997 election, developing the new Labour Government's first budget. Former adviser to Geoffrey Robinson. He was a tax partner at Arthur Andersen, head of a team who toured the City drumming up support for the Labour Party before the 1997 election, after which he immediately joined the Treasury.
 
 
 
Paul Gregg
 
As well as working for Gordon Brown, Paul Gregg works part-time as a Senior Research Associate at the London School of Economics and as a Reader in Economics at the University of Bristol. Before joining the LSE in 1995, he worked at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research from 1987.
 
 
 
Shriti Vadera
 
Former Executive Director at Warburg Dillon Read, where she worked on banking and privatisation teams. She is an expert on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deals. She is the Treasury's top negotiator in the PPP scheme to part-privatise the London tube network, telling London transport commissioner Bob Kiley she 'could not sanction public control of the tube under any circumstances' on February 12th 2001.
 
 
 
Maeve Sherlock
 
Former Director of the National Council for One Parent Families. She was a member of the National Union of Students Executive from 1985-1998 including as President from 1988-90.
 
 
 
Dr Stewart Wood
 
Professor in Politics at Oxford University (he is on leave until 2004). Went to Harvard University in the USA and is an organiser of the 'Third Way' think-tank NEXUS, which has co-ordinated research for the former No. 10 Policy Unit.
 
 
 
==Former Advisers==
 
 
 
*[[Jo Moore]]
 
Anji Hunter Former Director of Government Relations
 
David Milliband Now MP for South Shields
 
James Purnell Now MP for Stalybridge and Hyde
 
Lance Price
 
Pat McFadden
 
Tim Allan
 
Colin Byrne
 
Mike Craven
 
 
 
==Resources==
 
 
 
Info-Dynamics Research [http://www.gmb.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/5D3DCAA1-15AB-4CF0-B7A5-EB449C165AF2_ListofAdvisersApril2006congressFINAL.pdf Where are they now? The 1997/1998 Special Advisers to the Labour Government]
 
April 2006 Briefing for GMB.
 

Latest revision as of 21:19, 21 July 2009