Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

[1]

The Right Honourable
The Lord Adonis
PC
Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission
Assumed office
5 October 2015
Appointed by George Osborne
Preceded by Commission established
Secretary of State for Transport
In office
5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by Geoff Hoon
Succeeded by Philip Hammond
Minister of State for Transport
In office
3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by Rosie Winterton
Succeeded by Sadiq Khan
Minister of State for Education
In office
11 May 2005 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded by Stephen Timms
Succeeded by Jim Knight
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
16 May 2005
Personal details
Born Andreas Adonis
(1963-02-22) 22 February 1963
London, United Kingdom
Nationality British
Political party Social Democratic (1985–1987)
Liberal Democrats (1987–1995)
Labour (1995–2015)
Crossbencher (2015–present)
Spouse(s) Kathryn Davies (Divorced) - 1994-2015
Children Edmund
Alice
Alma mater Keble College, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Profession Journalist
Religion Greek Orthodoxy
Website Official website

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis PC (born Andreas Adonis, 22 February 1963)[2] is a former British Labour Party politician, academic and journalist who served in the Labour Government for five years.

Adonis began his career as an academic at Oxford University, before becoming a journalist at the Financial Times and later The Observer.[2][3][4] Adonis was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair to be an advisor at the Number 10 Policy Unit, specialising in constitutional and educational policy, in 1998. He was later promoted to become the Head of the Policy Unit from 2001 until being made a life peer in 2005, when he was appointed to the Government soon after as Minister of State for Education.[2][3] He remained in that role when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, before becoming Minister of State for Transport in 2008. In 2009, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport, a position he held until 2010.[5]

Adonis has worked for a number of think tanks, is a board member of Policy Network and is the author or co-author of several books, including several studies of the British class system, the rise and fall of the Community Charge, and the Victorian House of Lords. He has also co-edited a collection of essays on Roy Jenkins. He was educated at Kingham Hill School and at Keble College and Nuffield College at Oxford.

Family and education

Adonis's father, Nikos, emigrated from Cyprus as a teenager, becoming a waiter in London, where he met Adonis's English mother.[6] His mother left the family when he was three and has had no communication with him since.[6] Shortly thereafter, Adonis was placed in care and lived in a council children's home until the age of 11, when he was awarded a local education authority grant to attend Kingham Hill School, a boarding school in Oxfordshire.[7]

After taking his A-levels, Adonis gained admittance to Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a First Class Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History.[8] He subsequently gained a doctorate with a thesis on the British aristocracy of the late 19th century at Christ Church, before being appointed to a Fellowship in History and Politics at Nuffield College.[2][7]

From 1991 to 1996, he was an education and industry correspondent at the Financial Times, eventually becoming their public policy editor.[2] In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist, leader writer and editor.[2]

Early political career

From 1987 until 1991 Adonis was an Oxford City Councillor for the Social Democratic Party and later the Liberal Democrats, representing the North Ward.[2] In 1994, he was selected by the Liberal Democrats as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Westbury Constituency, but he resigned after 18 months. The following year, he joined the Labour Party.[9]

During the mid- to late-1990s, he was politically active in Islington North, the constituency represented by Jeremy Corbyn, and was selected to contest St George's Ward for Islington London Borough Council in 1998. He withdrew from the process before the election, however, upon being offered a position in the Number 10 Policy Unit as a constitutional and educational policy advisor in 1997. He remained in this role until 2001, when he was promoted to become Head of the Policy Unit.

On 16 May 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Adonis, of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden,[10] elevation to membership of the House of Lords making possible his appointment as a Government Minister without ever having been elected to Parliament.[11]

In government

Adonis in Bristol in 2011

Following his appointment to the House of Lords, Adonis became the Minister of State for Education in the Department for Education and Skills, which was later renamed the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He was closely involved in the London Challenge.[12] Having been the architect of the academies policy in the Policy Unit, Adonis was also able to be the driving force in Government behind the programme, which replaced failing and under-performing comprehensive schools with all-ability, independently managed academies, run on a not-for profit basis. By the time he left the Department in October 2008, 133 academies were open and 300 more were in the pipeline. Independent studies by the National Audit Office and the London School of Economics attest to the success of academies in raising educational standards.[13][14][15]

Adonis also encouraged state schools to adopt practices of the private sector and generally believed in giving individual schools more independence and autonomy from central government and the local education authorities. His criticism of under-performing comprehensives made him unpopular with some trade union members and some on the Labour Party's left-wing. Adonis was also popular with some Opposition politicians, in particular the then-Conservative Education Spokesman Michael Gove, who once declared, "We are on the same page as Andrew Adonis."[16]

Having initially kept his position when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, on 3 October 2008 Adonis was reshuffled to the Department for Transport to become Minister of State. In May 2009, while reviewing potential cycle "super highways" with Kulveer Ranger and Mayor Boris Johnson, the group had a "near-death" experience when a passing lorry's back door 'suddenly flew open, dragged a parked car into the street and smashed into another – just feet from the group'.[17] On 5 June 2009, Adonis was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport and was sworn in as a Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. In this role, he pioneered the plan for High Speed 2, the proposed high-speed railway line from London to Birmingham and the north of England. The plan was published shortly before the 2010 election, and has since been adopted and taken forward, largely unchanged, by the coalition government.[5] Adonis also planned and announced the electrification of the Great Western Main Line from London Paddington to Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea, and the electrification of lines in the north-west from Manchester to Liverpool and Manchester to Preston. This electrification programme, except for the Cardiff to Swansea section of the Great Western, is also being taken forward by the coalition government.

Adonis was a key figure in the aftermath of the 2010 general election, which produced a hung parliament. He was reputed to favour a Lib-Lab deal and, given his Liberal background, was a member of Labour's negotiation team that attempted, ultimately in vain, to form a government with the Liberal Democrats. After the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party, Adonis stepped down from frontline politics.[18]

Adonis later returned to active politics in 2012 as part of Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. He worked with Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna on crafting Labour's industrial strategy, and has also taken up roles as Shadow Minister for Infrastructure in the House of Lords, and overseeing the Armitt Review looking at future infrastructure plans for the Labour Party.

Subsequent career

In July 2010, Adonis became the Director of the Institute for Government, an independent charity with cross-party support and Whitehall governance working to improve government effectiveness.[19] Adonis left the Institute for Government in January 2012 in order to become Chair of Progress, an internal Labour Party organisation.[20][21] Having already been appointed President of the Independent Academies Association, in 2012 Adonis was also appointed a Liveryman Honoris Causa of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, one of the major charitable promoters of academies.[22]

He is also a Trustee of Teach First, the charity which recruits graduates to teach in state schools, a Trustee of the vocational education charity Edge, and a Governor of the Baker-Dearing Trust, which supports the establishment of University Technical Colleges, technical schools for 14- to 18-year-olds.[23][24] His book on education reform – Education, Education, Education – was published by Biteback in September 2012.[25] In November 2014, he was appointed visiting professor at King's College London.[26]

In October 2015, he resigned the Labour Party whip in the House of Lords to sit as a non-affiliated and lead a newly created National Infrastructure Commission.

Personal life

Adonis was formerly married to Kathryn Davies,[2] who was once a student of his;[6] the couple had two children.[7] Adonis and Davies divorced in 2015.

Selected publications

Books

Articles

References

  1. ↑ Davies, Kathryn (July 21, 2015). "Family Law Courts, Oxford" – via Family Law Courts, UK.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Will Woodward (28 October 2005). "The Guardian profile: Andrew Adonis". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  3. 1 2 "Department for Education and Skills Ministerial Team". Department for Education and Skills. Archived from the original on 1 April 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  4. ↑ "Adviser Adonis made a minister". BBC News. 10 May 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  5. 1 2 High Speed Rail – Command Paper. Department for Transport, 11 March 2010, ISBN 9780101782722
  6. 1 2 3 Winnett, Robert (12 June 2005). "Mother: why I left minister as a toddler". London: Times Online. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  7. 1 2 3 Ben Hall (17 January 2007). "This is not a wacky utopia". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  8. ↑ The Record, page 21. Keble College, 1984
  9. ↑ "Profile: Andrew Adonis". BBC News. 9 May 2005. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  10. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 57644. p. 6547. 19 May 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
  11. ↑ "Adonis will now be accountable". London: The Independent. 12 May 2005. Retrieved 3 April 2007.
  12. ↑ "Implementing the London Challenge" (PDF). Institute for Government. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  13. ↑ Department for Education: The Academies Programme |National Audit Office. Nao.org.uk (10 September 2010). Retrieved on 19 October 2013.
  14. ↑ Stephen Machin and James Vernoit (April 2011) Changing School Autonomy: Academic Schools and their Introduction to England's Education. Centre for the Economics of Education, London School of Economics
  15. ↑ Baker, Mike (6 October 2008). "End of an era as Adonis is moved". BBC News. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
  16. ↑ "Academy fears on Adonis reshuffle". BBC News. 6 October 2008. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
  17. ↑ Helm, Toby (23 May 2009). "Boris Johnson's 'near-death experience' with lorry caught on camera". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  18. ↑ Watts, Robert (16 May 2010). "Adonis devised original coalition plan". TimesOnline (London).
  19. ↑ "Andrew Adonis announced as new Director of the Institute for Government.'". 15 July 2010.
  20. ↑ Institute For Government Appoints Rt Hon Peter Riddell As Director. instituteforgovernment.org.uk. 17 November 2011
  21. ↑ Andrew Adonis becomes new Progress chair | Progress | News and debate from the progressive community. Progressonline.org.uk (11 January 2012). Retrieved on 19 October 2013.
  22. ↑ www.iaa.uk.net. www.iaa.uk.net (5 July 2013). Retrieved on 19 October 2013.
  23. ↑ Our people. Edge.co.uk. Retrieved on 19 October 2013.
  24. ↑ Our People. teachfirst.org.uk
  25. ↑ Education, Education, Education Reforming. bitebackpublishing.com
  26. ↑ www.kcl.ac.uk. www.kcl.ac.uk Retrieved on 23 November 2014.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Stephen Timms		 Minister of State for Education
2005–2008 		Succeeded by
Jim Knight
Preceded by
Rosie Winterton		 Minister of State for Transport
2008–2009 		Succeeded by
Sadiq Khan
Preceded by
Geoff Hoon		 Secretary of State for Transport
2009–2010 		Succeeded by
Philip Hammond
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