Special Advisers

Jack Airey

10 Downing Street

A wonk by trade, Jack Airey spent five years at think tanks Localis and Policy Exchange before being snapped up by Number Ten. Brought into Downing Street by Dominic Cummings, his work prompted the government to set up the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission and his reimagining of planning, published for PEx in January 2020, forms the basis of governmental reforms in the sector.

ROSS ALLAN

10 Downing Street

OWEN ALUN JOHN

Office of Nia Griffith MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales

EMMA BARNES

Office of Sir Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health & Social Care

DAVID BECKINGHAM

10 Downing Street

Beckingham is a relative long-liver among often mayfly like Spads. He has been in Number Ten since 2016. He spent another eight as a parliamentary researcher in the commons and a single one at the Centre for Social Justice.

HUGH BENNETT

10 Downing Street

Correspondence officer at Vote Leave veteran, he was deputy editor at Brexit Central before a stint as news editor at Guido Fawkes. After spending six months at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s office, he moved to Number Ten to work under Oliver Lewis at the Brexit unit. A chemistry grad from Cambridge, he represented his college (Trinity) on University Challenge in 2014, making it to the quarter-final.

SOPHIE BOLSOVER

Whip’s Office

ISABEL BRUCE

Northern Ireland Office

LEONORA CAMPBELL

10 Downing Street

KEELAN CARR

Cabinet Office

Keelan Carr’s first claim to fame was for writing Theresa May’s 2018 party conference speech - “Dancing Queen”, not the falling letters - but his career trajectory has looked rosier since then. Carr is now a special adviser to Michael Gove at the Cabinet Office, with a particular focus on maintaining the Union.

JOHN COOPER

Scotland Office

FRED DE FOSSARD

Office of the Leader of the House of Commons

EMMA DEAN

Department for Health & Social Care

JULIET EALES

Office of Ed Miliband MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

HANNAH ELLIS

Leader of the House of Lords

ANNABELLE EYRE

Leader of the House of Lords

SIMON FINKELSTEIN

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

SIMON FLETCHER

Office of Sir Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Opposition

MAGNUS GARDHAM

Scotland Office

LOGAN GRAHAM

10 Downing Street

RORY GRIBBELL

10 Downing Street

JOSH GRIMSTONE

Cabinet Office

JONATHAN HELLEWELL LVO

10 Downing Street

Previously an aide to HRH the Prince of Wales and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as private secretary to David Cameron, Hellewell is Faith and Communities adviser to the PM. A practising Christian, he is respected across denominations. He is involved with the Prince’s Trust and sits on the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

ALEX HITCHCOCK

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

RYAN HOPKINS

Department for Transport

KATHARINE HOWELL

10 Downing Street

A former staffer at New Schools Network, Howell spent a year at CCHQ before breaking Spad and becoming the adviser to the Leader of the House of Lords. After a short stint as Gavin Williamson’s policy adviser in 2019, Howell made tracks to Number Ten, where she now works alongside Nikki da Costa in the legislative affairs unit.

BEN JAFARI

Department for Justice

CHRISTOPHER JAMES

10 Downing Street

SOPHIE JARVIS

Department for International Trade

CHRISTOPHER JENKINS

Office of the Attorney General for England and Wales

ADAM JONES

Department for International Trade

YASMIN

Leader of the House of Lords

THOMAS KENNEDY

Department for Housing, Communities & Local Government

CLAIRE KING

10 Downing Street

With 20 years of experience running corporate events, King is a sound choice for operation, events and visits at Number Ten. She joined the Downing Street team after the February 2020 reshuffle.

DOREEN LAWRENCE

Race relations adviser

OLIVER LEGARD

Northern Ireland Office

JACK LEWY

Department for Housing, Communities & Local Government

EMILY MAISTER

Cabinet Office

IAIN MANSFIELD

Department for Education

GEOFF MAWDSLEY

Scotland Office

DAMIAN McBRIDE

Office of Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade

DOUGLAS McNEILL

Joint Economic Unit

A key player in the joint economic unit, McNeill is the go-between between the Treasury and No 10. He was special economic adviser to the prime minister until the February 2020 reshuffle. A former City analyst, he wrote the costings document for the Conservative manifesto. He knows his work inside out and is quite the diplomat. Colleagues often come out of a meeting “realising that he was right” and they were wrong.

CELIA MCSWAINE

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

HARRY METHLEY

Home Office

ANNELISE MIDGLEY

Office of Sir Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Opposition

CHARLOTTE MILLER

Home Office

JOE MOORE

Office of Kate Green MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education

SOPHIA MORRELL

Office of Jonathan Reynolds MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

ELENA NAROZANSKI

10 Downing Street

Children and schools adviser to Michael Gove before the coalition government, Narozanski helped launch Gove’s education reforms in the early days of the coalition. Since then, she advised Theresa May at the Home Office, headed up the New Schools for London programme at the Greater London Authority, when Boris Johnson was still mayor, worked on the Vote Leave campaign and as a lobbyist before joining Number Ten. Outside of work, she boxes for Team England.

MARCUS NATALE

10 Downing Street

Until 2019, a CCHQ staffer, he got his break into the big league after Boris Johnson crossed Number Ten’s threshold. Now, he works alongside Declan Lyons, the magisterial Sheridan Westlake and Leonora Campbell in Research and Briefing.