Daniel Moylan

Daniel Michael Gerald Moylan, Baron Moylan (born 1 March 1956) is an English Conservative politician and a member of the House of Lords, holding dual British and Irish citizenship.

Before being created Baron Moylan in September 2020, he had been a diplomat, a merchant banker, and a member of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council. He had also served as chief airport adviser to Boris Johnson as Mayor of London, advocating a new hub airport to the east of London to replace Heathrow, as Johnson's principal adviser on Crossrail 2, as Chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, as deputy chairman of Transport for London, and as co-chairman of Urban Design London.

In 2010, the ''London Evening Standard'' described Moylan as "one of London's most powerful and colourful politicians".Jonathan Prynn
Daniel Moylan: the planning king of Kensington
dated 19 July 2010 in ''London Evening Standard'' (online)

Early life

The son of Irish immigrants, Moylan was educated at St Philip's Grammar School, Edgbaston.Daniel Moylan
profile in ''Debrett's People of Today'' online. Retrieved 8 November 2015 In 1975 he went up to the Queen's College, Oxford, where he took a degree in German and philosophy.Speech Site Odd Choice?"
in ''The Victoria Advocate'' dated 27 November 1978, p. 7A: "Nixon's visit is a coup for Daniel Moylan, president of the Union this term... Son of a bus driver, Moylan is a Queen's College graduate in German and philosophy." He was president of the Oxford Union in the Michaelmas term, 1978, and in November secured Richard Nixon as a guest speaker.

Early career

Moylan joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in December 1978. After some time in the FCO's Central and Southern African Department, he undertook Afrikaans language training and was posted to the British Embassy in South Africa as Third Secretary, reporting on the progress of South-West Africa to independence as Namibia. In 1982, Moylan left the FCO and joined County Bank, the investment banking subsidiary of National Westminster, and stayed with them until 1986. At the general election of 1983, he stood as the Conservative candidate in Birmingham Erdington and lost to Robin Corbett by a narrow margin. In 1986, he joined Security Pacific Hoare Govett as a Vice-President and left them in 1987 to set up Egan Associates, a business providing training courses to financial institutions.

Local government career

Elected to Kensington and Chelsea Council in May 1990, Moylan became deputy leader of the council in 2000. As a councillor he specialised in environmental matters, including waste, environmental health, parks, transportation, and planning. He also served as the council's Design Champion and Heritage Champion. From 2006 to 2009 he chaired the London Councils Transport and Environment Committee. He resigned as deputy leader and from the council's Cabinet in April 2011 to concentrate on his work as Deputy Chairman of Transport for London. He stood down as a councillor for the Queen's Gate ward in May 2018. He twice stood for election as Leader of Kensington and Chelsea: in 2000, when he was defeated by a single vote, and again in 2013, when he came equal second.
The Grenfell Tower fire in the area covered by the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council took place while Moylan was a member of the council.

Transport for London and Crossrail

In August 2008, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, appointed Moylan to the Board of Transport for London. In February 2009 he became deputy chairman, in which position he served until 2012 and again from March to May 2016. Moylan was responsible both for bringing the organisation's finances back into order and for terminating the public-private partnership initiated by the Blair government, brought to a close in May 2010 with TfL's acquisition of Tube Lines from Ferrovial and Bechtel.

In August 2013, Moylan was appointed to the board of Crossrail as a non-executive director, replacing Sir Mike Hodgkinson as the Transport for London nominee. In September 2014, he was appointed to oversee City Hall's work on the Crossrail 2 project. In July 2015, as the Mayor's adviser on the project, he stated that "delay should not be an option," as London is growing at the rate of two inhabitants an hour, and that by 2030 would have a population of ten million. He remained a non-executive director of Crossrail and a member of the TfL Board, until the mayoral election in May 2016, when Sadiq Khan became Mayor.

London infrastructure

Within London, Moylan has promoted new approaches to streetscape drawn principally from the Dutch "shared space" concept developed by Hans Monderman.RIBA honours Royal Borough design champion
rbkc.gov.uk, 10 October 2007RIBA presents ten Honorary Fellowshipsarchived
Architecture.com, 2008, accessed 8 November 2015 These resulted in a redesign of Kensington High Street soon after Moylan became deputy leader of the Council in 2000. One aim of this was to rationalise street furniture and create a more pedestrian-friendly environment, and to achieve this Moylan had to reject professional advice and transfer the risks of the project onto himself and other councillors, after detailed consideration of the public safety risks. Plans for a similar improvement of Sloane Square in Chelsea proved controversial and were shelved in 2007, after a campaign against them, but a clutter-free redesign of Exhibition Road, in London's museums district, was achieved in 2012.

In 2009, Boris Johnson appointed Moylan to chair the Mayor's Design Advisory Panel, with responsibility for delivering the Mayor's vision for the public realm as set out in his "Great Outdoors" policy statement. Until he left these roles in June 2012, Moylan oversaw many improvements to highways and parks around the capital, including the restoration of Piccadilly and St James's Street to two-way traffic.

In 2011 Moylan was appointed as Chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, a Mayoral body created by statute to own and manage the Olympic Park, heading it for the duration of the London Summer Olympics of 2012 and the Paralympic Games. He replaced the Labour peer Lady Ford, and was formally opposed by the Labour/Green majority on the London Assembly. He made significant changes to the leadership of the organisation, which were not welcomed by the longer-serving Board members. In September 2012, Johnson himself took over as Chairman of LLDC, so that Moylan could focus on promoting their policy on a new London airport.

Airport Service Advisor

Moylan was the Airport Aide to Boris Johnson as Mayor of LondonNicholas Cecil
Extra Heathrow runway ‘would give just 4-hour break from noise’
dated 15 October 2015 in ''London Evening Standard'' online. Retrieved 8 November 2015 and worked to promote the Mayor's concept of a new or expanded multi-runway hub airport to the east of London, which would replace the existing Heathrow Airport.Pippa Crerar
Boris Johnson’s aviation aide Daniel Moylan aims for top job at Kensington & Chelsea
dated 20 April 2013 in ''London Evening Standard'' online. Retrieved 27 August 2015
In May 2010, Johnson gave Moylan the responsibility for promoting this scheme. In 2010 and 2011, working with Transport for London officers and with City Hall, he oversaw the publication of a major report in two parts called ''A New Airport for London''. In September 2012 the Government announced the establishment of an Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, to review options for new airport capacity. Moylan stepped down from the chairmanship of LLDC to focus on the Mayor's liaison with the new Commission.Merlin Fulcher
Olympic legacy chief Moylan steps down to take on airport role
in ''Architects Journal'' dated 12 September 2012 online. Retrieved 8 November 2015 In December 2013, the Airports Commission decided against including an estuary airport option in their shortlist, concentrating instead on expansion of Heathrow or Gatwick, but agreed to reconsider the estuary option and to decide later whether to add it to the short-list. Giving evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee, Moylan spoke of "tremendous potential for regeneration of east London" from a new hub airport in the Thames estuary. In November 2014 he was quoted as saying that creating an airport to the east of London would be "magnificently the right thing to do" and that the Heathrow site could then be developed into a new town. In October 2015, in giving evidence to the Environmental Audit Select Committee of the House of Commons, he said that an extra runway at Heathrow would cut the respite from flights allowed to local residents to as little as four hours a day.

Later career and peerage

In 2018, Moylan called for an immigration policy which did not favour white Europeans.
He also wanted to see the creation of a London Health Service, controlled by the Mayor of London, but with no National Health Service administrators transferring to it.
He was created Baron Moylan on 9 September 2020 and on taking his seat had two hereditary peers, Lord St John of Bletso and Lord Borwick, as his supporters. He delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 14 October 2020 on some new COVID-19 Regulations. Summing up his earlier life, he commented "Many people can point to a career that is a sort of linear progression, whereas mine has been more a series of happy stumbles."

Moylan was granted arms on 4 October 2021.

In July 2022, he endorsed Suella Braverman in the Conservative Party leadership election. Also in July 2022 he suggested on LBC radio that retirees should fill the UK's jobs vacancies caused by labour shortages.

Publications

*Daniel Moylan, ''Unripe time : Britain and the European Monetary System'' (Bow Group, 1988)
*Daniel Moylan, ''Bricks in the Wall, or, How to Build "Fortress Europe" While Denying Any Intentions of Doing So'' (Adam Smith Institute, 1989, )Bricks in the Wall
at worldcat.org. Retrieved 10 November 2015

Honorary fellowship

In 2008 Moylan was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which issued a press release to explain the honour.

References

External links

Councillor Daniel Moylan profile
at rbkc.gov.uk

danielmoylan.com
(personal web site)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moylan, Daniel Michael Gerald
1956 births
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
Councillors in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Conservative Party (UK) councillors
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Living people
Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects
Members of HM Diplomatic Service
People educated at Ampleforth College
People educated at St Philip's School
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Presidents of the Oxford Union
LGBT life peers
English LGBT politicians
21st-century LGBT people
Life peers created by Elizabeth II
20th-century British diplomats