Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton (born 28 June 1959), is a British Labour Party politician, and Master of

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college has origins from 1869, with the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

. She is the former Chair of

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

Early life

Morgan was educated at Belvedere School for Girls, then a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

in Liverpool, and at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

, from where she graduated in 1980 with a BA in

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

. After taking a

Postgraduate Certificate in Education The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE/PGCertEd) is a one- or two-year higher education course in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and South Africa -where it can take up to three years- which provides training in order to allow graduate ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in 1981, she worked as a teacher at Beverley School in New Malden, Surrey from 1981 to 1985. She later received an MA in Education from the

Institute of Education The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society 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 t ...

, London. In the early 1980s, she was active in student politics. As a member of the

Labour Students Labour Students is a student organisation within the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party of the United Kingdom. It is a network of affiliated college and university clubs, known as Labour Clubs, who campaign in their campuses and communities for L ...

, she was an active member of the

British Youth Council The British Youth Council, known informally as BYC, was a UK charity that worked to empower young people and promote their interests. The national charity, run by young people, existed to represent the views of young people to government and de ...

Executive Committee.

Career

Political career

From 1985, she worked for the Labour Party at Walworth Road, under Neil Kinnock then later when John Smith became leader. She worked for the Party under

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

before joining Blair's political office in

10 Downing Street 10 Downing Street in London is the official residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the United Kingdom. Colloquially known as Number 10, the building is located in Downing Street, off Whitehall in th ...

following the 1997 general election. She was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baroness Morgan of Huyton, ''of

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, Liverpool Built-up Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Merseyside, Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Netherley, Liverpool, ...

in the County of Merseyside'', on 20 June 2001. She was Minister of State for Women in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

from June to November 2001 before rejoining 10 Downing Street as Director of Government Relations. Her Cabinet Office responsibilities for equal opportunities and the women's unit were transferred to Barbara Roche. She left Downing Street in 2005. She was one of the three advisors Blair was most dependent upon, along with Jonathan Powell and

Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman an ...

Business career

In April 2006 she was appointed a board member of the

Olympic Delivery Authority The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for ensuring the delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

. In November 2005 she was appointed as a non-executive director of The Carphone Warehouse Group plc, as well as being a non-executive director of TalkTalk from 2005 to 2010, and on the Lloyds Pharmacy health care advisory panel. She was a non-executive director of Southern Cross Healthcare from 2006 until it had severe financial problems in 2011, before the company declared insolvency the following year. She also serves as Advisor to the Board of the children's charity and Academy Schools Chain Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) and has been chair of the board of Trustees of The Future Leaders Trust, as well as its successor organisations, since 2006. In July 2017 Morgan was appointed as senior non-executive director of building and support services company

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

, serving on the audit, business integrity, nomination, remuneration and sustainability committees. The company, which had many large government contracts and 43,000 staff, went into liquidation in January 2018, with the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

ordering a fast-track investigation into the directors to consider possible misconduct.

Other work

In 2007 and 2008 Morgan chaired an inquiry into young adult volunteering, named The Morgan Inquiry, sponsored by the All-Party Parliamentary Scout Group and supported by

The Scout Association The Scout Association is the largest organisation in the Scout Movement in the Scouting in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom. Following the rapid development of the Scouting, Scout Movement from 1907, The Scout Association was formed in 1910 ...

. She was appointed chair of

by the Conservative-led government from March 2011 and left that post in autumn 2014. Morgan is a trustee of the

Education Policy Institute The Education Policy Institute (EPI) is an education policy think tank that aims to promote high-quality education outcomes through research and analysis. It is based at 150 Buckingham Palace Road, in central London. History It was formed in 2016 ...

, a Westminster-based

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

. She is on the board of the think tank Labour Together.

Academic career

In February 2019, it was announced that Morgan would succeed Nicola Padfield as

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

in October 2019. She was officially admitted on 1 October, and is the college's 9th Master.

Personal life

Morgan is married to barrister John Lyons, whom she met while at Durham. They have been married for 35 years and have two adult sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Sally Baroness Morgan of Huyton 1959 births Alumni of Van Mildert College, Durham Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the UCL Institute of Education Labour Party (UK) officials British special advisers Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers created by Elizabeth II Labour Party (UK) life peers Living people People educated at The Belvedere Academy Carillion people