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Philip James Collins (born 16 May 1967) is a British journalist, academic, banker and speechwriter.
Education
Collins was educated at
Bury Grammar School, since 1976 an
independent school for boys in the
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
of
Bury in
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...
, followed by the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
,
Birkbeck College (a constituent college of the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
), and
St John's College at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
.
Career
Collins spent several years as an equity strategist in investment banking. He was a political adviser to
Frank Field and also worked for the
Institute of Education
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...
at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, and for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
.
He was director of the
Social Market Foundation
The Social Market Foundation (SMF) is an independent British political public policy think-tank based in Westminster, London. It is one of the 'Top 12 Think Tanks in Britain' and was named 'UK Think Tank of the Year' by Prospect in 2012. Its pur ...
before becoming chief speech writer to
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, and was responsible for writing Blair's last speech as
Leader of the Labour Party. In 2007 his was among many names put forward as possible
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
candidates in the constituency of
Bolton South East, after the sitting Labour MP
Brian Iddon
Brian Iddon (born 5 July 1940) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton South East from 1997 to 2010.
Early life
Born in Tarleton, Lancashire and attended the village's Church of England Primary ...
announced he would retire at the
2010 election. Collins did not stand for this or any other seat.
Until August 2020, Collins was a leader writer and columnist for ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
''. ''
Private Eye'' claimed that Collins was "sacked by editor
John Witherow
John Witherow (born 20 January 1952) is a former editor of British newspaper ''The Times''. A former journalist with Reuters, he joined News International (now News UK) in 1980 and was appointed editor of ''The Sunday Times'' in 1994 and edito ...
for being insufficiently boosterish about the
Woosterish Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
." As he left the newspaper, Collins wrote "Thank you to everyone who has said kind things about the writing I did for ''The Times'' and will now do elsewhere. I've always wanted to be thought too left wing but never thought I would achieve it."
He is a visiting fellow at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
and an associate editor of ''
Prospect'' magazine. ''The Liberal Republic'' (2009) is a pamphlet Collins wrote with his former colleague,
Richard Reeves, who later became
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicep ...
's director of strategy.
He helped Sir
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
write his 2021 Conference speech.
Collins joined the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' in September 2020 as a columnist and contributing writer.
Personal life
Collins is married to newsreader
Geeta Guru-Murthy; the couple have two children and live in London.
Bibliography
* ''Start Again: How We Can Fix Our Broken Politics'' (2018)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Philip James
1967 births
Living people
Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Labour Party (UK) officials
People educated at Bury Grammar School
Place of birth missing (living people)
Speechwriters
The Times people
Writers from London
British republicans