Matt Cavanagh (born 1971) is a British political adviser and author. [1] [2] He was a special adviser in the UK Labour government (2003–10). [1] He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett; [3] for Chancellor Gordon Brown; [4] for Defence Secretary Des Browne; [5] and for Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister from June 2007 to May 2010. [1] [6] Subsequently, he was an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy. [7] He now works in the private sector as Director of Government Relations for Prudential plc. [8]
Matthew Cavanagh was born in 1971. [9] He was educated at Bedford Modern School [10] and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read PPE, and then took a BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy. [1] From 1996 to 2000 he was lecturer in Philosophy at St Catherine's College, Oxford. [1] From 2000 to 2003 he was a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. [1]
Cavanagh is the author of Against Equality of Opportunity a controversial work of 2002 that criticises conventional understandings of the doctrine of equality of opportunity. [11] It gained positive reviews across the political spectrum, including in the Times Educational Supplement [12] and in The Spectator. [13] Other reviews were mixed, including Jeremy Waldron in the London Review of Books [14] and in the Guardian. [11]
Two years later in 2004, with Cavanagh now working as a special adviser, the Guardian returned to the book with a front-page story arguing that his views on race and equal opportunity made him unfit to work in government. [15] This led to widespread calls for Cavanagh to be sacked, with questions tabled in Parliament, and the affair rumbled on for a few days. The Guardian letters page carried a balance of letters for and against Cavanagh. [16]
In 2009 he was briefly in the news again, when he was accused of putting pressure on NHS statisticians to release statistics on knife crime prematurely. [17] The UK Statistics Watchdog reprimanded Downing Street, and again there were calls for his sacking, including from the Public Administration Committee. [18]
Cavanagh has written on Afghanistan and other subjects for Prospect [19] and The Spectator [20] magazines. He is a regular contributor to a number of blogs including the New Statesman, [21] The Spectator, [22] and Labour Uncut. [23]
He was the British national champion at Rugby fives in 2004 and 2006, and has since been a veteran winner. [24] [25]
Matt Cavanagh (born 1971) is a British political adviser and author. [1] [2] He was a special adviser in the UK Labour government (2003–10). [1] He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett; [3] for Chancellor Gordon Brown; [4] for Defence Secretary Des Browne; [5] and for Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister from June 2007 to May 2010. [1] [6] Subsequently, he was an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy. [7] He now works in the private sector as Director of Government Relations for Prudential plc. [8]
Matthew Cavanagh was born in 1971. [9] He was educated at Bedford Modern School [10] and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read PPE, and then took a BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy. [1] From 1996 to 2000 he was lecturer in Philosophy at St Catherine's College, Oxford. [1] From 2000 to 2003 he was a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. [1]
Cavanagh is the author of Against Equality of Opportunity a controversial work of 2002 that criticises conventional understandings of the doctrine of equality of opportunity. [11] It gained positive reviews across the political spectrum, including in the Times Educational Supplement [12] and in The Spectator. [13] Other reviews were mixed, including Jeremy Waldron in the London Review of Books [14] and in the Guardian. [11]
Two years later in 2004, with Cavanagh now working as a special adviser, the Guardian returned to the book with a front-page story arguing that his views on race and equal opportunity made him unfit to work in government. [15] This led to widespread calls for Cavanagh to be sacked, with questions tabled in Parliament, and the affair rumbled on for a few days. The Guardian letters page carried a balance of letters for and against Cavanagh. [16]
In 2009 he was briefly in the news again, when he was accused of putting pressure on NHS statisticians to release statistics on knife crime prematurely. [17] The UK Statistics Watchdog reprimanded Downing Street, and again there were calls for his sacking, including from the Public Administration Committee. [18]
Cavanagh has written on Afghanistan and other subjects for Prospect [19] and The Spectator [20] magazines. He is a regular contributor to a number of blogs including the New Statesman, [21] The Spectator, [22] and Labour Uncut. [23]
He was the British national champion at Rugby fives in 2004 and 2006, and has since been a veteran winner. [24] [25]