Matt Carter (politician)
Matt Carter | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary of the Labour Party | |
| In office January 2004 – September 2005 | |
| Leader | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | David Triesman |
| Succeeded by | Peter Watt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 March 1972 |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Academic, political operative, communications consultant |
Matthew John Carter (born 22 March 1972) is a former General Secretary of the British Labour Party, and now works in the public relations and communications consultancy industry.
Early life[edit]
Born near Grimsby, Carter studied at Sheffield University and the University of York, and has a DPhil in Political History.
Carter was tutor in the Department of Politics at the University of York from 1994. He subsequently held a number of jobs in the Labour Party, including head of policy, local organiser for Teesside and Durham and regional director in South West England during the 2001 general election.[1] As Assistant General Secretary, he set up Forethought, a policy think tank within the Party.[2][3]
In 1997, Carter was a member of Labour's National Policy Forum and parliamentary candidate for the Vale of York. Matt Carter is Labour's youngest General Secretary, appointed to the job aged 31 in December 2003.[2] He took up office on 1 January 2004 succeeding David Triesman,[2] and announced his resignation on 6 September 2005, following the 2005 general election victory.[4]
While General Secretary, Carter organised the legal aspects of large loans from individuals to the Labour Party that were central to the Cash for Honours political scandal,[5][6] while the elected Treasurer, Jack Dromey, was not informed about them.[7] These debts eventually mounted to £24.5 million, and were finally fully repaid in 2015.[8]
Carter has written The People's Party: the History of the Labour Party with Tony Wright (1997) and T.H. Green and the Development of Ethical Socialism (2003).
In January 2010 Carter became CEO of B-M UK, a leading public relations and communications consultancy, part of Young & Rubicam Brands, a subsidiary of WPP.[9][10] He set up and ran the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) office of Penn, Schoen and Berland.[11][12] In 2013 he founded Message House, a communications consultancy.[11]
Matt Carter married Erica Moffitt in 1997 and has three children.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "CARTER, Matthew John". Who's Who (Oct 2014 online ed.). A & C Black. Retrieved 28 January 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b c Tom Happold (16 December 2003). "Labour gets Carter for general secretary". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ "Upfront News - Forethought". Progress. 17 December 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
- ^ "Top Labour official leaves post". BBC News. 6 September 2005. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ Rajeev Syal (24 March 2006). "Your secret loan can stay secret, Labour Party donors were told". The Times. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ Brown, Colin (25 March 2006). "Developer's tower block approved after £200,000 donation to Labour". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009.
- ^ "Labour loans to be investigated". BBC. 16 March 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
- ^ Dathan, Matt (26 November 2015). "Labour pays off £25m debt and abandons move out of Westminster". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
- ^ "Burson-Marsteller EMEA". Bursonmarsteller.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ "Matt Carter becomes new CEO of Burson-Marsteller UK". WPP. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
- ^ a b "Matt Carter". Message House. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
- ^ "Penn Schoen Berland - Dr. Matt Carter". Psbresearch.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2010.