Latest news with #LizLloyd
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Nicola Sturgeon's former chief of staff lands director role at book festival where star speaker is...Nicola Sturgeon!
Nicola Sturgeon 's former chief of staff has been hired as a director of the book festival where the ex-First Minister will be one of the most high-profile speakers. Liz Lloyd has been taken on by the Edinburgh International Book Festival because of her 'valuable experience in communications, leadership and public affairs'. It comes as Ms Sturgeon prepares to appear at the event in August to promote her memoir, entitled Frankly – and amid a row over the lack of gender-critical writers on the programme. Ms Sturgeon tried to drive through abortive transgender reforms while in office - while Ms Lloyd recently said she did not 'think either side of this [transgender] debate could really walk around with a halo over their head saying, you know, we got this absolutely right'. Ms Lloyd, 47, who now works for political risk consulting firm Flint Global, described herself as a 'thought partner' for the former First Minister. In a message in November 2020, during the Covif epidemic, Ms Lloyd said: 'I just want a good old-fashioned rammy so can think [sic] about something other than sick people.' Last night a Scottish Tory source said: 'Any hopes that Nicola Sturgeon might be subject to frank scrutiny when she plugs her self-serving book appear to have been dashed by this appointment. 'What next - Val McDermid [a crime writer and friend of Ms Sturgeon] 'grilling' her on her record?' A spokesman for the Edinburgh International Book Festival said: 'We are pleased to welcome Liz Lloyd to the board of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. 'Her appointment follows a fully advertised recruitment process, and she will bring valuable experience in communications, leadership and public affairs. 'Recent and upcoming board appointments reflect a broad range of expertise to support the Festival's strategic direction. 'Programming decisions remain solely with our executive and programming teams.' The Festival did not disclose Ms Lloyd's remuneration, and the latest accounts for the event, up to the end of 2023, pre-date Ms Lloyd's tenure. They show one unnamed director received payments for 'consultancy fees' of £18,557. Ms Lloyd was contacted for comment. Edinburgh International Book Festival, which is partially funded by the Scottish Government, has been criticised for giving a platform to Ms Sturgeon but not including gender-critical authors. The annual event has the theme of 'repair' - but is not hosting those on the opposite side of the gender debate to the SNP. It was plunged into financial woes last year after complaints from Left-wing activists, and the Scottish Greens, forced Baillie Gifford to withdraw its sponsorship. The multinational company was criticised for its investments in fossil fuels, with climate change activists threatening to disrupt some of the events. New funding was supplied by Edinburgh-based crime author Ian Rankin as well as additional cash coming from the Scottish Government and the People's Postcode Lottery. But the line-up infuriated some writers who claimed no feminists are scheduled to speak. Jenny Lindsay, who has written about being 'hounded' out of Scotland's literary scene due to speaking up for women's rights, was one of the most vocal critics. She wrote on social media platform X: 'I can't believe I missed that the theme is 'repair', and they've booked hounders over those hounded, are continuing to ostracise successful feminist writers trying to 'repair' after houndings, AND they're featuring many activist writers who had their funding destroyed last year and called them all sorts of names.' Two Scottish Tory MSPs also condemned the Edinburgh line-up. Tess White said it was 'very disappointing that Edinburgh International Book Festival has given a platform to people like Nicola Sturgeon, but not to authors like Jenny Lindsay who have suffered such significant personal and professional cost from speaking out against self-ID'. Fellow Tory MSP Pam Gosal added Edinburgh International Book festival's theme this year is 'repair' - yet 'they refuse to invite Jenny Lindsay and other feminist writers opposed to [gender] self-ID'. She said that instead they have 'given a platform to Nicola Sturgeon who threw women and girls under the bus'. There was also no invite for the authors behind the Sunday Times bestseller The Women Who Wouldn't Wheest - a series of essays about the battle for women's rights in Scotland. One of those behind it, Susan Dalgety, said that she 'never really expected' to be invited. She wrote on X that it included essays about how 'the book festival industry, like Nicola Sturgeon, had dismissed us as bigots and our book, and those by Jenny Lindsay, were simply 'not valid''. Ms Dalgety added: 'One of the biggest challenges facing Scotland [and the rest of the UK] in recent years is the social and cultural divide that has arisen, not between the wealthy and working people, but between the 'lanyard' class and the rest of us. 'The Edinburgh Book Festival (and others) largely pander to this small clique of middle-class folk whose luxury beliefs reinforce the power structures that celebrated the mutilation of children and put the demands of men first before the rights of even the most vulnerable women. 'But it's their loss, because some of the best thinking and creativity around is being done by women who have (re)discovered the power of their individual and collective voices.'
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour Left ‘at war' with Starmer's new right-hand woman
Morgan McSweeney may have gained unwanted fame in Westminster as Sir Keir Starmer's ruthless and wily adviser, but he is not the only behind-the-scenes figure ruffling feathers. After conversations with well-placed sources, The Telegraph has uncovered government tensions over the influence of a new top adviser: Liz Lloyd, Sir Tony Blair's former fixer, who has returned to the top of government after nearly two decades to help Sir Keir Starmer turn Labour's fortunes around. Though Ms Lloyd has largely operated behind the scenes, avoiding the media attention of her influential colleague Mr McSweeney, she has been making waves since she was appointed by Sir Keir in January as his 'head of policy delivery', a drab title that in fact carries considerable influence. She has been busy upsetting the Labour Left and bringing the hard-nosed politics of Mr Blair's premiership to this Labour government. A former girlfriend of Ed Miliband in the 1990s during the heady days of New Labour, she rose through the ranks of Sir Tony's Number 10 to become his deputy chief of staff by the time he left office in 2007. With Sir Tony's departure, Ms Lloyd also largely left front-line politics behind and moved into the private sector, where she has worked in banking and investment advice. She was once described, in the early 2000s, as one of 'the Young Turks, an elite being groomed by Tony Blair to lead the country a decade from now'. It took a little longer than a decade thanks to Labour's 14-year hiatus in the political wilderness, but now Ms Lloyd is indeed operating at the highest levels of government. While other top advisors such as Mr McSweeney have been working in Labour politics for a number of years, Ms Lloyd's return was a surprise to some. 'Power struggle' One insider told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Liz Lloyd hasn't been in politics for a very long time. She's been in commercial banking for a very long time. Politics has changed.' Ms Lloyd has already ruffled feathers and sources speak of a 'power struggle' in Number 10 between Ms Lloyd and those with more progressive ideas. 'There is definitely a power struggle going on. There has been briefing between rivals and there were also, very suddenly, people asked to leave their jobs in No 10,' said a Cabinet source. The Telegraph understands that she has already clashed with Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, along with other more progressive members of the Cabinet. The pair are said to have disagreements about Ms Phillipson's radical changes to education, known as the children's wellbeing and schools bill, with Ms Lloyd asking the reforming minister to explain why the changes to academies and free schools were necessary. As a Blair acolyte, Ms Lloyd is understood to be passionately committed to the rollout of academies that Sir Tony and his reforming education ministers pioneered. Much of the work was carried on by the Conservative governments of the last 14 years, with Tories praising education as their one great success story in government. In government Sir Tony railed against the 'forces of conservatism' in the educational establishment who resisted such changes. Now there is a feeling that Ms Phillipson has appeased those forces by reducing the autonomy of academies and free schools. A source familiar with Ms Lloyd's thinking said 'she thinks Bridget must be doing something wrong because the unions haven't turned against her.' Another has even blamed Ms Lloyd for a recent spate of negative briefings against more Left-wing Cabinet ministers such as Ms Phillipson, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and even her former partner Mr Miliband. They claimed: 'Everything was fine before Liz arrived. She is where the briefing against progressive ministers is coming from.' Then came a wave of dismissals in the inner sanctum of Downing Street. Nick Williams and Tom Webb, long-serving advisers to Sir Keir and both of a Left-ish hue, were asked to leave their jobs shortly after she took up her new post as their boss. Number 10 has maintained that the advisers departed on good terms and were not let go because of their politics. However one has already emerged as a Left-wing critics of the Government only a few months out of the job. Mr Williams, former special adviser to Sir Keir and ex-head of economic policy in the Labour party, penned an article declaring 'the bottom line is that taxes will have to go up'. In it he criticised the government's cautious approach as 'not credible' and described the forthcoming autumn Budget as 'the last opportunity to make a meaningful change that the public has time to feel before the next election'. Mr Williams also set out a range of tax-raising proposals that the Government should follow. 'The Blairite of Blairites' Insiders have described Ms Lloyd as 'the Blairite of Blairites' who is resistant to such blue-sky thinking. But her Blairite credentials are what made her attractive to Sir Keir. Downing Street has also played down talk of divisions at the top of Government, with a Number 10 source telling the Sunday Telegraph: 'Liz has a wealth of knowledge and experience, not least of driving policy delivery in the last Labour government, which is why the Prime Minister hired her. 'She is working closely with Bridget and other ministers to deliver on this government's Plan for Change and national renewal.' Mr Williams' breaking rank was soon followed by the publication in the Telegraph of a secret memo by Angela Rayner, sent to Rachel Reeves before the Spring Statement, setting out a highly similar set of proposals for tax rises. The memo has split opinion in government with one minister telling the Sunday Telegraph: 'I hope the Government will be looking closely at those very interesting proposals.'
