Andrew Adonis Keynote Speaker

Lord Andrew Adonis is a former British Labour Party peer, academic and journalist who served in the Labour government for five years under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Andrew was the Public Policy Editor at the Financial Times for five years (1991-96) before moving to the Observer as a political columnist. He joined Tony Blair’s Number 10 policy staff in 1998, first as education adviser then, after 2001, as Head of the Policy Unit.

Andrew is a life peer in the House of Lords. He became a member of the Lords on 23 May 2005. He was Minister for Schools from May 2005 until October 2008, Minister of State for Transport from October 2008 until June 2009, and Secretary of State for Transport from June 2009 until May 2010.

In 2010, Andrew became the Director of the Institute for Government, an independent charity with cross-party support and Whitehall governance working to improve government effectiveness.

From March 2021-December 2022, Andrew was Chair of the European Movement, campaigning for a close relationship with the European Union, having previously been Vice-Chairman between 2019-21.

He writes a column for political and cultural newspaper, The New European.  Previously, he worked as a journalist at The Observer and the Financial Times.

An accomplished writer, Andrew is the author of books such as Education, Education, Education: Reforming England’s schools (2012) and 5 Days in May: The Coalition and Beyond (2013), which is a remarkable and important insider account of the dramatic negotiations that led to the formation of the first UK coalition government since the Second World War.  More recently he authored It’s the Leader, Stupid: Changemakers in Modern Politics (2021) and Half In, Half Out – Prime Ministers on Europe (2018).