Speaker List

Richard Angell is deputy director of Progress. He studied public policy and government management at Birmingham University where he got involved in student politics, and he now gets involved in everything from door-to-door canvassing to campaigning during local by-elections. He was national chair of Young Labour until April 2009, and is active in his local …

Roger is Labour’s front bench spokesperson on Europe in the House of Lords. He chairs Policy Network, the international progressive think tank, and is a Director of the University of Cumbria. From 2009-2010, Roger chaired the government’s New Industry, New Jobs advisory panel in the Department of Business Innovation and Skills. From 2007 to 2010 …

Fiona was elected MP for Slough in 1997 is currently Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.  She was the founder of the All-Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade, and is joint secretary of the All-Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking. During the 1997-2010 Labour Government, Fiona served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chris Smith and …

Luke Akehurst served on Labour’s NEC as a CLP representative from 2010 to 2012. He was also national secretary of Labour Students 1995-6, parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005) and has been a Hackney councillor since 2002, serving as Labour group chief whip 2002-09, and chair of the Health scrutiny committee since …

Member of parliament for Brent North since 1997, Barry served as minister for biodiversity and Gordon Brown’s special envoy for forestry. After the 2010 general election he joined the energy and climate change and the environment, food and rural affairs select committees. Barry was appointed as the special envoy on climate change and the environment …

Prior to working at Progress, most recently as acting director, Jessica was a health policy researcher at the Social Market Foundation, focusing on the issues of demographic change and paying for older people’s care, and was director of the Labour Yes! Campaign in favour of AV. Jessica is a former chair of the Young Fabians, …

Jenny was elected MP for Darlington in 2010. Previously she worked as senior parliamentary researcher for Darlington Labour MP Alan Milburn. She was elected as a Darlington councillor for the Cockerton West ward in 2007 and  served on the council’s cabinet. Jenny co-authored a chapter of The Purple Book with Jacqui Smith entitled ‘Cutting crime and …

Stephen Bush is a writer from London. He studied history at the University of  Oxford, and has written on everything from party funding to underwater hockey. He writes a weekly column, the Tuesday Review, for ProgressOnline on politics and current events, and for LabourList on European affairs. Topics available to speak on: Media, culture, sport, urban regeneration, …

Andrew Gwynne was elected on Thursday, 5th May 2005 as the Labour Member of Parliament for the Denton and Reddish constituency in eastern Greater Manchester.  He was re-elected on 6th May, 2010. 37 years old with three children, Andrew lives in Denton, where he grew up. He served as a Labour Councillor on Tameside MBC between 1996 and …

Kate Green was elected MP for Stretford and Urmston, in May 2010. Previously Kate was the Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, and before that she was Director of the National Council for One Parent Families (now Gingerbread). Kate is a longstanding campaigner against poverty and inequality, and for a better deal for …

Ellie Reeves is a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee and sits on the Joint Policy Committee, and works as a trade union lawyer. Regions available to speak in: East Midlands, Eastern, London, North-east, North-west, Scotland, South-east, South-west, Wales, west Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber Topics available to speak on: NEC, law, Refounding Labour Recently spoken …

Wes Streeting is Head of Education at Stonewall, Britain’s lesbian, gay and bisexual charity, where he leads their flagship Education for All campaign aimed at tackling homophobia and celebrating difference in schools, colleges and universities. Wes is Deputy Leader of the Labour Group in the London Borough of Redbridge and shadows the finance and resources …

Steve Reed is MP for Croydon North, elected in November 2012. He is the former leader of Lambeth council from 2006 when Lambeth was the only council in the country that Labour won back from opposition. Under his leadership Lambeth became the fastest-improving council in the country.  It led nationally on the development of cooperative …

Joanne is a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum and of the Joint Policy Committee. Joanne currently works for the statutory consumer body, Consumer Focus, and was previously a Project Manager for a Communications consultancy specialising in community engagement and behaviour change. Regions available to speak in: London, eastern, south-east Topics available to speak on: …

An active Labour campaigner, Steve will be well known to members in Devon and across the south west as Ben Bradshaw’s parliamentary advisor for three and a half years. Working as a key member of Ben’s campaign team in Exeter, Steve wrote Ben’s campaign materials, drafted speeches and advised on key issues across the region. He was also very proud to spend time supporting colleagues in Exeter and beyond in local council elections. When not campaigning for Labour, Steve works in public affairs advising charities, campaign groups and businesses on the legislative landscape and appropriate messaging strategies. Alongside his membership of Progress, Steve is also on the national executive of the Young Fabians as Equalities Officer and is a member of Unite the union. In a previous life, Steve twice stood for election as a local council candidate in Salford and was very pleased to reduce the Liberal Democrat majority from over 400 to under 100, giving them a bit of a fright!

A member of Guildford CLP, and represents SE CLPs on the National Policy Forum. Previously a member of party’s Health Policy Commission, and now a member of the Prosperity and Work Commission.  Also runs a group called Southern Comfort in the SE region, organising training for CLPs (especially non-Labour seats) and also publicising campaign events …

Matthew Doyle has spent more than a decade working for the Labour party in government, first in parliament and at Labour party headquarters, and then as a special adviser in the Department of Work and Pensions and 10 Downing Street. He continued to work for Tony Blair once he stood down as prime minister, from …

Thom is reader in law at Durham University and he has been a visiting fellow at Oxford, St Andrew’s, and Uppsala universities. His recent book is Punishment (2012) and his research is featured in a Research Councils UK report on the top 100 “Big Ideas for the Future” report. Brooks is an active public speaker, …

Stephen is director of United for All Ages, social enterprise bringing young and older people together, and was previously chief executive of the national charities Daycare Trust and Counsel and Care. He is on the board of several national charities and has worked for two trade unions. He has been a member of the Labour …

David Coats is a research fellow at the Smith Institute and is an associate of the Centre for Public Service Partnerships.  Previously he was associate director – policy at The Work Foundation 2004-2010 and head of economic and social affairs at the TUC 1999-2004. David is recognised as an expert commentator on employment relations, labour …

Andrew joined the Labour party in November 2010, after a high-profile defection from the Liberal Democrats. In May 2010 Andrew (then 23) was one of the youngest PPCs in the country and contested his home seat of Hertford and Stortford. Andrew joined the Labour party in opposition to the coalition’s policies on the economy and …

Jordan Newell is a political activist, former FE governor, event organiser and campaign leader. Born and raised in Essex, he spent five years working for Labour MPs in Westminster, before moving into the charity and voluntary sector.  As Chair of Colchester Labour Party for the past three years, Jordan Newell has led the constituency through its …

Ben is a public policy and communications entrepreneur, who has worked at the heart of the policy world for over three decades. After graduating from Liverpool University, his career started in trade union research, where he was head of research and communications for the construction union UCATT. He then went on to become Jack Straw’s …

Jamie McMahon is a Labour activist working for the Labour group of Nottingham city council. As agent to Nottingham Labour party, Jamie organised campaigning and group activities across three constituencies, overseeing the election of 50 Labour councillors out of 55 seats in 2011. Jamie was also a Labour parliamentary candidate at the 2010 general election, …

Callum Munro is the youth representative on Labour’s NEC. He was a campaign coordinator on the Scottish Young Labour National Committee, and has worked for his local MSP. Callum is also his CLP’s youth and student officer. Regions available to speak in: East Midlands, Eastern, London, North-east, North-west, Scotland, South-east, South-west, Wales, west Midlands,  Yorkshire …

Dan was Somerset Labour MP for rural Wansdyke from 1997 to 2010 turning over a 12,000 Tory majority in the 1997 Blair landslide with the biggest swing to Labour in the south-west. He was a government whip under Tony Blair and minister for the environment and rural affairs under Gordon Brown (including responsibility for waste …

Florence Nosegbe is a Labour councillor in the London borough of Lambeth, representing Brixton Hill ward.  She has held a number of key positions, including chair of the housing scrutiny committee, deputy cabinet member for communities and young people,  cabinet member for culture, sport and the 2012 Olympics, and special representative on tackling youth violence. …

Mark Rusling is a Labour and Cooperative party councillor in the London borough of Waltham Forest, where he is the junior cabinet member for employment and child poverty. He is a former chair of the Young Fabians and has worked in the legal and energy industries, as well as for a UN thinktank. Mark is …