New Statesman Politics Live

Megan Gibson is The New Statesman's Executive Editor, Foreign, where she oversees the title's expanding international team. She has interviewed several heads of state and reported stories from Israel, Armenia, Iceland, Singapore, Estonia, and Ukraine, among others. Based in London, she previously worked for Monocle and Time magazine.

I left the British Army in July 2013 after a career in which I served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and, most recently, as the military assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff. As a Territorial Army officer I worked on everything from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to establishing the Armed Forces Muslim Association. I also worked for the Foreign Office and helped set up the National Security Council of Afghanistan and the government in Helmand Province.

I grew up in London and Sellindge, near Ashford, before going to read Theology at Bristol University where I also worked in the local homeless shelter in the St Paul’s area. I then studied for a Masters’ degree in Islamics at Cambridge University, which including learning Arabic in Yemen.

After graduating, I went to Beirut as a journalist where I wrote about the conflict as well as regional politics and economics. Soon after I established one of Lebanon’s first public relations companies and won some major international clients. When I returned to the UK I worked as a management consultant before going into energy analysis in the City. At about the same time I joined the Territorial Army.

When the Iraq War broke out in 2003, I was mobilised as an Arabic-speaking intelligence officer to serve with the Royal Marines. I went in as part of Op TELIC, the invasion of Iraq. After the war I returned to my job in the City, but was soon asked to help with the distribution of the New Iraqi Dinar as part of the economic reconstruction effort. Over the next six months I ran the central region – Baghdad and surrounding cities – and distributed much of the $4.5 billion-worth of cash that went into Iraq.

The next year I saw a series of projects conducted on behalf of the British government and companies including helping to improve Morocco's ports to ensure they were compliant with modern protocols. In 2005, I was asked by the Foreign Office to go to Afghanistan and help grow the National Security Council. Working in the Dari language, the project involved setting the strategic goals for a new office that coordinated Afghanistan’s strategic advice to President Karzai.

When one of the members of the National Security Council was named governor of Helmand Province, he asked for me to go with him as his adviser. Together, and this time working in Pashto, the language of southern Afghanistan, we set up the first non-warlord administration in Helmand since the Soviet invasion.

After two years in Afghanistan I returned to the UK, but my former Royal Marines unit was deploying to Helmand and asked me to go too. I agreed to be mobilised and served operationally for a further two years, for which I received the MBE, coming off my last patrol in July 2009.

On returning to the UK, I was asked by the new Chief of the General Staff (the head of the British Army) to work on the Army Strategy Team helping prepare for the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

When the Chief of the General Staff was made Chief of the Defence Staff (the professional head of the British Armed Forces) he asked me to serve as his military assistant and principal adviser. I remain a reserve officer.

In 2015 I was elected as Member of Parliament for Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling and am honoured to have been re-elected in 2017 and 2019 too.

In Parliament I sat on the Speakers' Advisory Committee on Works of Art of the House of Commons and in July 2017 was elected Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which I also Chair in this current Parliament. I am a Dementia Friend and an active supporter of the Alzheimer's Society while being a Honourary Fellow at St Augustine’s College of Theology in West Malling, and Patron of Hospice the Weald, The Bridge Trust in Tonbridge and Spadework in Offham. I am also a Vice-Patron of the Kent Autistic Trust.

I live with my wife, Anissia, and our two children near Edenbridge.

Abimbola Johnson is an award-winning criminal defence and professional regulatory barrister who practises from 25 Bedford Row. She was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 2011.

Abimbola is also a legal commentator and writer. She has been featured in The Guardian, Elle magazine, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Channel 4 News, The Metro, and Sky News. Her writing appears on the reading list for the LSE’s LLB(Hons) course.

Abimbola sits on a number of boards and advisory panels: She is a legal trustee for The Advocacy Academy; an editorial board member for the Criminal Law Review; a management committee member of the Black Barristers’ Network, and a member of the advisory board for The Howard League’s project “Making Sure Black Lives Matter in the Courtroom”. She also sits as a school governor for a south London primary school.

Abimbola graduated from the St Peter’s College, University of Oxford with a degree in Law (Jurisprudence) in 2009.

Jason Cowley is a journalist, magazine editor and writer.

He has been widely credited with transforming the fortunes of the New Statesman, of which he has been editor since autumn 2008.

He is a former editor of Granta magazine and has worked in staff roles on the Times and Observer.

According to the European Press Prize, “Cowley has succeeded in revitalising the New Statesman and re-establishing its position as an influential political and cultural weekly. He has given it an edge and a relevance to current affairs it hasn’t had for years.”

In 2020, he was voted Editor of the Year, Politics and Current Affairs, for the fourth time at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards.

He is the author of a memoir, The Last Game (Simon & Schuster, 2009), and a book of essays, Reaching for Utopia (Salt Publishing, 2018).

In 2019, he edited and wrote the introduction to Statesmanship: The Best of the New Statesman, 1913-2019 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson); a revised and updated paperback edition was published in 2020.

His latest book, Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England (Picador), is published on 31 March 2022.

Group Chief Executive Officer
Charles is Group Chief Executive Officer of BAE Systems plc. He joined BAE Systems in May 2016 as Chief Operating Officer, Executive Director on the BAE Systems plc Board of Directors, Director on the BAE Systems, Inc. Board of Directors and became Group Chief Executive Officer on 1st July 2017.

Previously, Charles held a number of senior management positions in the oil and gas industry including Chief Executive Officer of Expro Group, an oilfield services business. During a 15-year career with Schlumberger, Charles worked in the Far East, Australia, France and the United States.

Charles holds a First Class Honours Degree in Electrical Sciences and a PhD in Engineering from Cambridge University. He also holds an MBA from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Mark Harper is the Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean. First elected in 2005, Mark served as Government Chief Whip from 2015-2016, having previously served as the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform in the Cabinet Office, Minister of State for Immigration at the Home Office and Minister of State for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions. Since November 2020, Mark has been Chair of the Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs.

Sam leads the Green Alliance’s Economy theme which aims to solve structural economic problems alongside progress on climate and nature. He is a member of Chatham House’s Panel of Young Advisors, advising on youth strategy and climate. Sam has worked as an adviser to the Labour Party, was a senior adviser to Tony Blair, and lead on Brexit and industrial strategy for the Wellcome Trust. Outside of work Sam is a school governor, a trustee for Bristol Museums Development Trust and a mentor with the Social Mobility Foundation. He holds a MSc in Climate Change.

Layla has been the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017. She is the Liberal Democrats’ Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development. She was previously the party’s Education spokesperson, and was a teacher before being elected to Parliament. She is also the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus ensuring lessons are learned from the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Caroline is the Member of Parliament for Romsey and Southampton North and the current Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee in Parliament. Since her election in 2010 she has served as a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and was Minister of State for Immigration in Theresa May’s Cabinet. Immediately prior to becoming an MP she was the Chief Executive of an animal welfare charity.

Caroline is currently the co-chair of the APPG for Muslim Women, Vice Chair of “Show Racism the Red Card” and as Chair of the Select Committee is leading the inquiry into menopause in the workplace.

Kath Scanlon is Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE London. She has a wide range of research interests including comparative housing policy (across all tenures–social and private rented housing as well as owner-occupation), comparative mortgage finance, and migration.

Her research is grounded in economics but also draws on techniques and perspectives from other disciplines including geography and sociology, and aims at improving the evidence base for policy decisions at national or local level.

Since 2015 she has focused on ways of accelerating new housing development in London, looking at a range of solutions from cohousing and other collaborative approaches to the potential of large-scale private rented schemes. She recently edited an authoritative book on Social Housing in Europe (Wiley, 2014).

Kath has worked with a number of national and international institutions including the Council of Europe Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and Denmark’s Realdania foundation. She has lived and worked in the USA, Spain, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Kuwait and Peru, and speaks Spanish, Italian, Serbian, Danish and a bit of French.

Tom Young is the New Statesman’s Editorial Director.

Nicola is an expert in economic abuse as it occurs within the context of coercive control. She has worked in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector since 2006 and held policy-influencing and research roles before moving into charity leadership.

In 2016, Nicola was made a Winston Churchill Fellow and travelled to the United States and Australia to explore innovative responses to economic abuse. It was her determination to ensure that women in the UK have access to the same responses that led her to establish Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) in 2017. The charity’s mission it to raise awareness of economic abuse and transform responses to it.

Nicola is also an Emeritus Research Fellow in the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), London Metropolitan University and a Visiting Senior Fellow in Social Policy at the School of Law and Social Sciences, University of Suffolk.

In October 2020 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to victims of domestic and economic abuse.

Andrew Stephenson was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Transport on 13 February 2020. He was previously Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development from 25 July 2019 to 13 February 2020. He was first elected as Conservative MP for Pendle in May 2010. He was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 4 April 2019 to 25 July 2019. He was also a Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, from January 2018 to April 2019, and served as an Assistant Government Whip from June 2017 to January 2018. Andrew Stephenson has responsibility for: HS2; Northern Powerhouse Rail; Transpennine route upgrade and skills.

Alona Ferber is Special Projects Editor at the New Statesman. She joined the magazine from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where she was an editor specialising in research on extremism and counter-extremism policy. Before that, Alona spent a decade living in Mexico and Israel. She was a senior editor and reporter at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and worked in cooperation programmes at the British Embassy in Mexico City. Her writing has also appeared in publications including Spiegel Online, Newsweek, and the Independent.

Oscar is the Special Projects Editor of the New Statesman’s Spotlight policy supplement. He was previously editor of the New Statesman’s dedicated technology site, NS Tech, where he reported on the intersection of technology, business and politics. He regularly chairs discussions about cyber security, fintech and govtech, and previously worked for the Guardian and HuffPost.

Saffron is NHS Providers deputy chief executive. She has extensive experience in policy development, influencing and communications and has worked in the healthcare sector since 2007. Before moving into healthcare, Saffron was head of public affairs at the Local Government Association, the voice of local councils in England. Her early career focused on influencing EU legislation and policy development, and she started working life in adult and community education.

She has a degree in Modern Languages from the University in Manchester, for ten years was a board member and then chair of a 16–19 college in Hampshire and is a trustee of GambleAware, a leading charity committed to minimising gambling-related harm.

Before joining the Mayor of London’s team, Seb served as a Member of the European Parliament for London from 2014 to 2020, during which time he was Vice Chair of the Environment Committee, Co-ordinator for the Socialists and Democrats Group on vehicle emissions, and spokesperson for the Socialists and Democrats Group on air quality. He was also Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

Prior to being elected to the European Parliament, Seb worked for the charity ActionAid UK, before which he was Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

As Deputy Mayor for Transport and Deputy Chair of Transport for London, Seb will focus on delivering the Mayor’s transport strategy, ensuring 80% of all journeys in London are on foot, by cycle or public transport by 2041.

Stephen Greenhalgh was appointed an unpaid Minister of State for Building Safety and Fire jointly at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Home Office on 19 September 2021.

Stephen was previously an unpaid Minister of State jointly at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office from 18 March 2020 to 19 September 2021.

Stephen served both as Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in London from 2012 until 2016, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council Leader from 2006 until 2012.

He was created Lord Greenhalgh on 16 April 2020.

Maria Machancoses is the Chief Executive of Midlands Connect - the sub-national Transport Body (STB) for the Midlands. The umbrella group brings together political, civic and business leaders to secure major investment into the region’s transport network.

Under her leadership, Midlands Connect has published its first landmark 25-year regional transport strategy for the Midlands and has progressed a number of critical projects including the £3.7bn Midlands Engine Rail.

Maria, with over 20-years of transport experience, has held a number of senior positions across a broad range of areas including strategy, planning, environmental and infrastructure.

Maria was recently recognised for her “Outstanding Contribution to Transport” by the Transport Times.

Prior to Midlands Connect, Maria worked on major projects including strategic master-planning activities around the Midlands, integration plans with HS2 and has also served on many international platforms including EMTA (European Metropolitan Transport Association) and UITP (International Association of Public Transport) providing expertise on the role of transport in contributing to economic growth and social inclusion.

Maria is currently Board member of the Midlands Engine Partnership, the HS2 East Midlands Development Corporation, the University of Birmingham City Region Economic and Development Institute (City REDI) and the Telford Town Deal Board. Maria holds a Degree in Law from the University of Valencia (Spain), as well as a Masters Degree in International Transport (University of Cardiff, Wales).

Elected as the Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford in December 2019, Gareth previously worked for a c.$500bn global investment company, most recently as the Global Head of Responsible Investment Business. He holds degrees from the University of Nottingham and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

As an MP, Gareth led calls in the House of Commons for the UK Government to issue its first ever Sovereign Green Bond and in a later report with the think tank, Onward, called for a new national development bank to boost private investment in national infrastructure projects. He has also campaigned for investors to better disclose links to modern slavery in investment portfolios, for pension auto-enrolment to be extended to 18–22-year-olds, and for the banking surcharge to be reduced or scrapped to make the UK more competitive in financial services. In a second report with Onward, he recently put forward a series of proposals for scaling the UK’s social investment market which would help close the SME funding gap.

Gareth sits on both the Treasury and Finance Select Committees. He serves as Vice Chairman of the APPG on Sustainable Finance and the APPG for Financial Markets and Services, and is also Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Campaign for Economic Growth. He is a committed champion of UK financial services in Parliament and writes regularly on industry matters.

In November 2021, Gareth was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department of Health and Social Care Ministerial team.

Sebastian Payne is an award-winning British political journalist. He is the Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times, covering UK politics and policy. He also writes a fortnightly column for the paper’s opinion pages that explores political policy from around the country.

Sebastian is the author of Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England, an acclaimed exploration of how the Labour party fell out of favour with its traditional electoral strongholds. It was named The Times’ political book of the year and listed as one of the top books of 2021 by The Telegraph, The Guardian and the Financial Times.

Each weekend, Sebastian presents Payne’s Politics podcast, which provides expert and in-depth analysis into the political and policy issues that have dominated the week. The podcast regularly receives 100,000 downloads and has a loyal base of listeners across the world. It was shortlisted for ‘News Podcast of the Year’ at the 2020 National Press Awards.

Between 2016 and 2019, as the FT’s political leader writer, he opined on the key developments of Brexit. At the 2019 British Journalism Awards, he was awarded political journalist of the year as part of his work the FT’s series ‘The Corbyn Revolution’ about how the Labour party had changed under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

He is a frequent political commentator on broadcast media, appearing on the BBC’s Question Time, Any Questions, Newsnight, Today programme, The World at One, PM, Westminster Hour, The World Tonight as well as the BBC News Channel. He is also a fortnightly reviewer on Sky News’ Press Preview programme.

Andy Bord is Flood Re’s Chief Executive Officer. Andy graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Bristol, and began his career at BT. He joined Singlepoint (mobile phone service provider) as Operations Director in 2000 which was subsequently acquired by Vodafone in 2003. He was then appointed Head of Vodafone.co.uk and Consumer Direct Sales, latterly becoming Head of Broadband Development. Andy moved into the insurance industry in 2008, joining BGL Group where he managed the own-brand portfolio of personal lines insurance products and then undertook a number of due diligence assignments for HIG Capital, one of which led to him being appointed as interim CEO of Freedom Finance. He then moved to Staysure as Deputy CEO before joining Capita as CEO of the insurance services business. In January 2017, Andy joined Flood Re as Interim CEO before being appointed to the role permanently in April 2017.

Angela Eagle has been an active member of the Labour Party since her teens and held various positions in the party before being elected to Parliament in 1992, when she became the first ever Labour Member of Parliament for Wallasey.

Angela has served in several high profile positions since first being elected. She was a minister in several departments, including the Home Office and Treasury in both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s governments, and she was a leading member of Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet, when she became Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In 2011, she became Shadow Leader of the House. In 2015, she was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, a position she held until June 2016. She returned to the backbenches and has since been campaigning about issues such as cuts to disability benefits and NHS services.

In 2018, her book The New Serfdom was published. It explores how we can build a successful economy that is powered by a happy and productive workforce that benefits everyone in the 21st century.

Jess Phillips is a Labour Party politician who became the MP for the constituency of Birmingham Yardley at the 2015 general election.

Jess has committed her life to improving the lives of others, especially the most vulnerable. Before becoming an MP, Jess worked for Women’s Aid in the West Midlands developing services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, human trafficking and exploitation. She became a councillor in 2012, in this role she worked tirelessly to support residents, with her work being recognised when she became Birmingham's first ever Victims Champion. 

Since becoming an MP, Jess has continued her fight to support those who need it the most and has earned a reputation for plain speaking since being elected, unfazed by threats and calling out sexist attitudes as she promotes women’s rights and focuses on ending violence against women and girls and on issues of justice and home affairs.

Jess is a bestselling author and has written three bestselling books. Her books focus on demystifying the worlds of politics and activism to encourage others to take back power and control.

Dr Patricia Lewis leads the International Security programme at Chatham House.

Previously she served as deputy director and scientist-in-residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the former Monterey Institute of International Studies; director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research; and director of the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre in London.

She was on Hans Blix’s 2004–06 WMD Commission; the 2010–11 advisory panel on the future priorities of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; and was an adviser to the 2008–10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

She received the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award for ‘outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society’.

She has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Birmingham University and graduated in Physics from Manchester University.

Patrick joined Hestia as CEO in March 2002 from Centrepoint, where he had managed services, development and statutory income. Since 2002 Hestia has grown from a £4 million West London agency to a pan-London £24 million turnover provider of a range of services, while retaining its focus on its service users.

Patrick has significant governance experience and has been trustee of a number of local, London wide and National agencies. Patrick has chaired a range of provider forums and has also been a co-opted to sit on Local Authority Oversight and Scrutiny committees. Patrick is a UKCP registered psychoanalytic psychotherapist and an NUI graduate.

Christine Jardine is the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh West and Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson.

Before entering politics, Christine was an Edinburgh based journalist and broadcaster who had written for the Scotsman, worked for the BBC and was editor of the Press Association in Scotland.

Sarah Olney is the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park & North Kingston and an advocate for liberal values of inclusivity, opportunity and equality. Sarah is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson in Parliament for the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, International Trade, and Transport. Sarah was first elected MP for Richmond Park in a by-election in December 2016, serving for six months until May 2017. She was re-elected in December 2019 to represent Richmond Park and North Kingston again. Sarah is a qualified accountant and worked for Barclays, National Physical Laboratory and Historic Royal Palaces before entering Parliament.

Jeremy Hunt has been a Conservative Member of Parliament for South West Surrey since May 2005.

In May 2010 Jeremy was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, during which time he oversaw a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in the summer of 2012. From September 2012 to July 2018, Jeremy held the position of Secretary of State for Health. In June 2018, Jeremy became the longest serving Secretary of State for Health in British history. In July 2018, Jeremy was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, a position he held until July 2019. He was elected as Chair of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee in January 2020.

Born on 1 November 1966, Mr. Hunt studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University. He lives in Godalming and London with his wife Lucia and their three young children.

Dr Rick Muir is Director of the Police Foundation, the UK’s independent policing think tank, where he has most recently led the organisation’s work on the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales. He has been a public policy researcher for most of his career, most latterly working on public service reform, including on policing and criminal justice policy, at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Prior to that he did his DPhil in Latin American politics at the University of Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Northumbria University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and a member of the Cumberland Lodge Police Steering Committee. He was previously a local councillor in both Oxford and Hackney.

Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, has political experience at all levels. Born in Germany, she was a councillor in Rochdale from 2004 to 2014, where she was Cabinet Member for the Environment, Chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee and then Group Leader. She was first elected as the MP for Bath in 2017 and was re-elected in 2019 with a doubled majority.

Wera is currently the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the Climate Emergency, Women, Justice and Equalities and Shadow Leader of the House. She is the Chair of the APPG on Adverse Childhood Experiences and the APPG on Eating Disorders. She successfully introduced what has become known as the Upskirting Bill, which is now law.

Andrew Marr is the New Statesman’s Political Editor and the UK’s pre-eminent political journalist.

Martin Hewitt is Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). He was appointed in April 2019.
He began his policing career with Kent Police in 1993 and transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service in 2005.

As an Assistant Commissioner for five years, Martin led frontline and local policing, specialist crime and professional standards. He led the national police response to adult sexual offences and kidnap between 2014 and 2019, and served as a Vice-Chair for the NPCC from 2015 before taking on the chairmanship.

Nikki da Costa is a Specialist Partner with Flint Global and the former Director of Legislative Affairs at No10. The first to hold the post, she served both Theresa May and Boris Johnson, helping to deliver their domestic policy agenda in Parliament while playing a crucial role in their fight to deliver Brexit. Nikki has often appeared as a parliamentary commentator on Radio 4’s Today Programme, BBC News, Channel 4 and Sky, and as a columnist with the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. Before working in Government, building on a long career in the public affairs industry, Nikki ran her own business coaching and developing public affairs practitioners. Nikki has been twice named in the top 100 Women in Westminster.

Apsana Begum is the Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, elected in 2019 and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group of Domestic Abuse and Violence. She has worked extensively in the public and voluntary sector in a variety of roles including as a diversity and inclusion practitioner in higher education, housing and the NHS. In an area which has the highest rate of child poverty in the country, Apsana has been a prominent anti-austerity campaigner, working to retain public nurseries and services for SEND children. She is also a member of the Education Committee.

Martin Tugwell is responsible for transforming pan-Northern connectivity in order to improve productivity and drive economic growth.

He leads Transport for the North as England’s first Sub-national Transport Body, giving the North a strong, unified and determined voice on transport investment to benefit the region.

Martin has more than 20 years of experience in strategic transport and infrastructure planning at national, regional and local levels.

Immediately prior to joining Transport for the North, Martin was Director for England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) – one of England’s 7 Sub-national Transport Bodies. Here, he led the creation of the EEH Transport Strategy – Connecting People, Transforming Journeys. This ambitious strategy sets out how the region’s transport system can support economic growth while delivering net zero emissions by as early as 2040.

Martin is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow and past President of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). He is a Trustee of the CIHT and past Chairman of the Transport Planning Society.

Professor Gilbert joined the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University in 1994 and became part of the Jenner Institute (within NDM) when it was founded in 2005. Her chief research interest is the development of viral vectored vaccines that work by inducing strong and protective T and B cell responses. She leads the Jenner Institute programme in influenza vaccine development and now also works on vaccines for many different emerging pathogens, including Nipah virus, MERS, Lassa virus and CCHF virus.

Professor Gilbert’s work also focuses on the rapid transfer of vaccines into GMP manufacturing and first in human trials. This is achieved through collaboration with colleagues in the Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility and Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, all situated on the Old Road Campus in Oxford.

Professor Gilbert is currently the Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This vaccine, tested by the University of Oxford in clinical trials of over 23,000 people in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, is now in use in many countries around the world in the fight against the Covid-19 Pandemic.

‘I have worked in the development of vaccines against infectious pathogens for many years and in the last 2 years have been able to draw on all that I have learned in order to respond to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. I have been so fortunate to work with a very talented and dedicated team who made it possible to develop a vaccine in less time than anyone thought possible.’

Adam Hawksbee is the Deputy Director and Head of Levelling Up at Onward. He was previously Head of Policy at the West Midlands Combined Authority, working with Mayor Andy Street to shape and deliver programmes on housing, transport, skills, and economic development. Adam is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Kennedy Fellow, and has worked with US Mayors as a Research Fellow at the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and during a period at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations. He lives in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham.

Fiona is the Group Sustainable Business Director for Lloyds Banking Group supporting the development of the Group’s Purpose, with responsibility for the Inclusion & Diversity and Responsible Business strategies. Fiona also has oversight of the Lloyds Banking Group Foundations, which continue to support small charities across the UK.

Fiona was also the Director of the Agile Future Forum established by Lloyds Banking Group from 2011 - 2017; an alliance of 33 UK FTSE 100 chief executives supporting UK businesses to become more agile. She is the author of the Agility Mindset published in January 2017.

Currently, she sits on the steering group of the FTSE Women Leaders Review, which follows on from the Davies and Hampton Alexander Reviews and is also a steering group member of the Thriving at Work Leadership Council, which aims to improve the awareness of and action on mental health. Fiona was the architect of the Mental Health at Work Commitment working with Mind. She is a member of the advisory Board for Playtech and a member of the LSE Just Transition Committee.

In recent years, LBG has been named Responsible Business of the Year by Business in the Community; recognised in Stonewall’s Top Employer Index; named Best Bank in the World for Incusion and Diversity, Euromoney Awards for Excellence; Top Employer of Working Families and won the ‘Outstanding Employer’ category in the Investing in Ethnicity Awards. The Group has also been recognised in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index for 3 consequtive years.

From the early 1990’s, Fiona has held a number of public positions and external appointments which have included: Non-executive Director of the Government Equalities Office Board; Deputy Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission; Chair, Women’s Justice Taskforce and founder and Chair of Employers for Work-Life Balance and Employers for Childcare.

Fiona was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year’s Honours List for services to equal opportunities.

Lisa Nandy MP has represented Wigan since her election in 2010 and currently serves as Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government

Before entering Parliament, Lisa worked for Labour MP Neil Gerrard and as a researcher for the youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint. She went on to work as senior policy adviser for The Children’s Society, and served as a Labour councillor in Hammersmith.

During her time in Parliament, Lisa has served on the front bench in a number of roles, including Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Shadow Children’s Minister and Shadow Minister for Civil Society. Lisa is also the co-founder of the think tank Centre for Towns, which was set up to ensure equal attention be given to the viability and prosperity of Britain’s towns.

Wes Streeting is the Labour Member of Parliament for Ilford North and Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. He has previously held the positions of Shadow Child Poverty Secretary, Shadow Minister for Schools and Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. He has also sat on the House of Commons Treasury committee.

Wes bucked the trend to win his parliamentary seat at the 2015 election with the largest swing from the Conservatives to Labour in the country. Prior to that, Wes served as deputy leader and cabinet member for health and wellbeing of the London Borough of Redbridge.

In his career outside politics, Wes served in the voluntary sector as a chief executive and in other senior leadership roles for a number of national charities focused on tackling inequality and educational disadvantage. He is a vice-president of the Local Government Association, a Fellow of the RSA and a former president of the National Union of Students.

Wes grew up on a council estate in the East End of London and was the first person in his family to graduate from university. He is an alumnus of the Sutton Trust, which supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to access leading universities. Wes read history at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Sajid Javid was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 26 June 2021. He has previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Home Secretary; Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was elected Conservative MP for Bromsgrove in 2010.

Before being elected as an MP, Sajid worked in business and finance. Aged 25, he became a Vice President at Chase Manhattan Bank. He later moved to Deutsche Bank in London to help build its business in emerging market countries. Sajid left Deutsche Bank as a senior Managing Director in the summer of 2009 to give something back through politics.

Sophie Linden is London's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC). She was a special advisor to David Blunkett in the Department for Education and Employment from 1997-2001 before moving to the Home Office to work with the police in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour as a special advisor until 2004.

Whilst at the Home Office she worked with the Home Secretary and Ministers on policy development and strategy including:
-police reform, crime and antisocial behavior reduction
-neighbourhood policing
-reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs.

From 2006 Sophie was a Councillor at Hackney Council until her appointment by the Mayor of London, as well as Deputy Mayor of Hackney Council from 2011.