Tom Baldwin is a British journalist, author and former Labour Party senior adviser.[1] He has worked as a journalist for a number of national titles including The Times and The Sunday Telegraph. He was also a senior political adviser to Ed Miliband, and director of communications and strategy at the Labour Party. He has written a book, Ctrl Alt Delete, about technology's "abusive relationship with truth in media and politics" over the past thirty years.[2] He was communications director at the People's Vote campaign.
Biography
editBaldwin was educated at the comprehensive Lord Williams's School, Thame, and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford.
He started his career in journalism at the Newbury Weekly News before moving to The News, Portsmouth and then The Sunday Telegraph where he became political editor. Later, at The Times he worked as deputy political editor, Washington bureau chief, chief reporter and assistant editor. He was responsible for breaking the scandal of Bernie Ecclestone's secret donation to the Labour Party[3] and was injuncted by the Home Office when he leaked the report of the Macpherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.[4] However, he was generally regarded as pro-Labour and, in his book, acknowledges his own role in the media's degeneration over recent years.[5]
In 2010, he was appointed as head of communications for the Labour Party and also worked as Senior Adviser to Ed Miliband.[6][7] He ended this role after Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election. He later worked as director of communications at the People's Vote campaign which called for a new referendum on Brexit. In October 2019, he was controversially sacked along with the campaign's director, James McGrory, by Roland Rudd, the chair of one of the groups in the People's Vote alliance, just days after organising a million-strong march through London.[8] More than 40 members of staff walked out in protest at the sackings and Baldwin attacked Rudd for putting a "wrecking ball" through the campaign at a crucial moment in politics.[9][10] Rudd was later forced to step down from his role.[11]
In 2024, Baldwin wrote the book Keir Starmer: The Biography about British opposition and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.[12] In June of the same year, the New Statesman named Baldwin 44th in The Left Power List 2024, the magazine's "guide to the 50 most influential people in progressive politics", citing his "nuanced portrait" of Starmer.[13]
Works
edit- Baldwin, Tom (2019). Ctrl Alt Delete : how politics and the media crashed our democracy. Hurst. p. 320. ISBN 9781787380066.
References
edit- ^ Parker, George (20 August 2018). "Control Alt Delete, by Tom Baldwin". Financial Times.
- ^ Rawnsley, Andrew (23 July 2018). "Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Peston, Robert (30 October 2008). Who Runs Britain?: ...and who's to blame for the economic mess we're in. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-84894-016-1.
- ^ MacAskill, Ewen; Pallister, David; Dodd, Vikram (22 February 1999). "Straw's move to stem leak brings defeat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Aaronovitch, David. "Review: Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy by Tom Baldwin — politics versus the iPhone". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ "Miliband unveils chief spokesmen". BBC News. 14 December 2010.
- ^ "Miliband's new spinner offers fire and fury". www.newstatesman.com. 15 December 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Adams, Tim (19 October 2019). "People's Vote march: from every corner of the land they came, to join a very British rebellion in the rain". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Bloom, Dan (28 October 2019). "People's Vote in open warfare as staff stage walkout amid 'wrecking ball' attack". mirror. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ "People's Vote: Tom Baldwin vs Roland Rudd". BBC News. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Syal, Rajeev (15 November 2019). "Roland Rudd exits People's Vote amid continuing rancour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ "Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin review – from 'can't win to can't lose': the making of a Labour leader". The Guardian. 25 February 2024.
- ^ "The Left Power List 2024". New Statesman. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
Further reading
editExternal links
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