Lance Price (born 3 September 1958) is Chief of Staff to Kim Leadbeater, MP for Batley and Spen in the UK. He returned to active politics to help run her by-election campaign,[1] having worked with her at the Jo Cox Foundation since the murder of her sister, who was MP for the constituency from 2015 to 2016. He is also a writer, broadcaster and political commentator. He was a journalist for the BBC from 1981 to 1998, then became special adviser to Prime MinisterTony Blair, eventually assuming the role of Director of Communications for the Labour Party, coordinating the Labour Party election campaign of 2001. He has published five books, and appears regularly on Sky News and the BBC. Price's fourth book, The Modi Effect,[2] which details the rise of the Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2015.[3]
Price's involvement with the media continued after university, when he joined the BBC as a News Trainee, working there continuously from 1980 to 1998, taking a minor gap to travel from 1992 to 1993.[6] His career at the BBC touched on many topical issues of the time, covering the Northern Ireland Troubles for three years, then becoming a national radio and television reporter, Defence Correspondent, and finally a Political Correspondent based at Westminster. As political correspondent and beyond, he interviewed every serving prime minister from James Callaghan to Tony Blair, and was the only journalist in Downing Street when the resignation of Margaret Thatcher was announced.
After seventeen years as a BBC journalist, he joined Tony Blair's staff at 10 Downing Street in 1998, where he was deputy to the Communications Director, Alastair Campbell. He was promoted to the Labour Party's Director of Communications from 2000 until the general election of 2001, playing a significant role in overseeing the party's victorious campaign.
Price was the first person to coin the phrase 'the nasty party' to describe the Conservative Party during his time with Labour. He came up with the phrase while ghost-writing a statement by Tory defector, Ivan Massow, who was joining the party.
Author
Price was the co-author and principal photographer for the Berlitz Guide to Iceland, published in 2003, and he maintains an active interest in travel and photography.
Upon leaving the Labour Party, Price published the first insider account of Tony Blair's first term as prime minister, from 1997 to 2001. The Spin Doctor's Diary was published in September 2005 by Hodder & Stoughton. Price appeared before the House of Commons Public Administration Committee to answer questions on the reasons for publishing the book; the Committee went on to recommend a new system of oversight for political diaries.
Price's second book was the satirical novel Time and Fate, published in October 2005. This was a "take on what life was like for a family at the top of British politics".[7]
In 2010, he published Where the Power Lies, analysing the relationship between past governments and the media. The book was published before the phone-hacking scandal of 2010, and argued that successive British governments had been too close to powerful media interests, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Price called for greater transparency about relationships between journalists and politicians.
On 15 January 2015, Hodder & Stoughton announced Price's fourth book, The Modi Effect, an account of Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's successful election campaign in 2014. It was described as the "story of Modi's rise to power", which argued that "message-management and IT wizardry combined to create an election winning machine of fascinating power".[8] The book was released on 12 March 2015 and received favourable coverage.[3]
Reception
Lance Price was called to give evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Commons in January 2006, in response to his first publication of The Spin Doctor's Diary.[9] The book caused considerable controversy when the British government tried to block its publication.[10] He also stated that Rupert Murdoch was the 24th member of Tony Blair's cabinet.
Despite the initial and ongoing controversy, The Spin Doctor's Diary was shortlisted for Political Book of the Year in the Channel 4 News Awards of 2006. In 2008, it was named by GQ Magazine as one of the top 50 political books of all time. Matthew Parris of The Times called the book "sensational".[11] It was criticised by Rafael Behr in The Observer for not taking us "close enough to the personalities or even the underlying motives of Campbell or Blair". However, Sir Stephen Wall, a former advisor to Blair, said that "Lance Price was right to publish, and should not be damnned".[12]Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London, reacted in his diary in the New Statesman: "Lance Price is a turd".[13]
Price's second book, Time and Fate received generally favourable reviews: with Progress Magazine emphasising "The strong characterisation and compelling plotline [which] make Time and Fate a welcome, gripping page-turner…. a refreshingly engaging political novel in its own right." The Sunday Times said it was "the corking political novel that Blair's Britain so badly needs".[7]
Price's third book, Where Power Lies, received positive reviews by critics. The Guardian described it as "witty, well informed and extremely readable".[14]Progress, a Blairite think-tank, described it as a "thoughtful reflection on the balance of roles between the Prime Ministers and the Media,"[15] regarding its focus on Blair's relationship with the media, and how and why future Labour leaders could draw inspiration from it. Rod Liddle argued it was "required reading for those on both sides" in the Sunday Times.[16]Total Politics reviewer Peter Riddle surmises that Price places the media question "firmly in its historical context".[17]The Financial Times's John Lloyd described the book as an "elegant and well grounded survey of relations between premieres and the press in the UK over the past century".[18]
Price's fourth book, The Modi Effect, was a critical assessment of the first election campaign of the Indian Prime minister, although Price made clear he would not have voted for Modi if he had been able to vote himself. The Times of India wrote that Price had "written the definitive account of the campaign that got Modi to where he is now. He tells a good story".[19]
Price's fifth book, Petrified, was a children's story; he donated the proceeds to the Jo Cox Foundation.
Broadcaster, lecturer and political commentator
Since leaving the employment of the Labour Party, Price has become an observer of British politics and world affairs, retaining his membership of the party, as he confirmed during an interview on BBC Radio 5 with Richard Bacon on 11 February 2010.
Price was a panellist during the 2010 general election campaign for the BBC News Channel and The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4. He has taken an increasingly independent line on political affairs, and was one of the first to call for Gordon Brown to step down as prime minister after Labour's election defeat in May 2010.
In September 2014, he published an article in the Independent criticising the then Labour leader Ed Miliband's perceived paranoia of Tony Blair, and attacking his often "too late" communication style.[20]
In September 2011, Price launched The Kaleidoscope Trust, a UK-based organisation that aims to improve LGBT rights overseas. The Trust aims to work with existing LGBT rights groups in order to advance their respective campaigns.[21] The launch was hosted by Speaker of the House of CommonsJohn Bercow MP, who acknowledged the "global challenge" with regard to advancing LGBT rights outside of the UK.
David Cameron, the then Prime Minister, endorsed the project: "In some countries, it's simply appalling how people can be treated – how their rights are trampled on and the prejudices, and even violence, they suffer. So I want Britain to be a global beacon for reform. That's why I am delighted to send my best wishes to Kaleidoscope, and wish them well in their work".[22]
Lance Price is married to James Proctor, and splits his time between Yorkshire and London.
Related Research Articles
James Gordon Brown is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005, and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 to 2015.
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the opposition Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179-seat majority and a total of 419 seats.
In public relations and politics, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through knowingly providing a biased interpretation of an event or campaigning to influence public opinion about some organization or public figure. While traditional public relations and advertising may manage their presentation of facts, "spin" often implies the use of disingenuous, deceptive, and manipulative tactics.
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, known between 1960 and 1963 as The Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South East and Chesterfield for 47 of the 51 years between 1950 and 2001. He later served as President of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 to 2014.
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott, is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull East for 40 years, from 1970 to 2010. He was often seen as the political link to the working class in a Labour Party increasingly led by modernising, middle-class professionals such as Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, and developed a reputation as a key conciliator in the often fractious relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown.
New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid- to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen in a draft manifesto which was published in 1996 and titled New Labour, New Life for Britain. It was presented as the brand of a newly reformed party that had altered the old Clause IV and instead endorsed market economics. The branding was extensively used while the party was in government between 1997 and 2010. New Labour was influenced by the political thinking of Anthony Crosland and the leadership of Blair and Brown as well as Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell's media campaigning. The political philosophy of New Labour was influenced by the party's development of Anthony Giddens' Third Way which attempted to provide a synthesis between capitalism and socialism. The party emphasised the importance of social justice, rather than equality, emphasising the need for equal opportunity and believed in the use of markets to deliver economic efficiency and social justice.
Graham William Allen is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham North from 1987 to 2017. He stood down at the 2017 general election.
Alastair John Campbell 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 and campaign director in opposition (1994–1997), then as Downing Street Press Secretary, and as the Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson (1997–2000). He then became Downing Street's director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003).
Christopher John Mullin is a British journalist, author and Labour politician.
John O'Farrell is a British author, comedy scriptwriter, and political campaigner. Previously a lead writer for such shows as Spitting Image and Have I Got News for You, he is now best known as a comic author for such books such as The Man Who Forgot His Wife and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain. He is one of a small number of British writers to have achieved best-seller status with both fiction and nonfiction. His books have been translated into around thirty languages and adapted for radio and television.
In British politics, a Lib–Lab pact is a working arrangement between the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.
Reginald Thomas Keys is the father of a British serviceman killed in the Iraq War. He stood in the 2005 general election as an anti-war independent candidate for in Sedgefield, a constituency represented by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British 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 was Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997 and held various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007, and was special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. He is the second-longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories.
Iain Dale is a British broadcaster, author, political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. He was the publisher of the Total Politics magazine between 2008 and 2012, and the managing director of Biteback Publishing until May 2018. Since September 2010, he has hosted a regular discussion show on the radio station LBC. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in 2013 and 2016. On 28 May 2024, he announced that he was quitting his LBC roles to run as an MP in the 2024 United Kingdom general election, only to abandon his campaign three days later. He returned to his usual LBC slot on 3 June.
Tony Blair's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 2 May 1997 when he accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding John Major of the Conservative Party, and ended on 27 June 2007 upon his resignation. As prime minister, Blair also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Leader of the Labour Party. He and Gordon Brown both extensively used the New Labour branding while in office, which was presented as the brand of a newly reformed party that had altered Clause IV and endorsed market economics. He is the second-longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories.
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry.
Not flash, just Gordon was an advertising slogan and campaign used by the British Labour Party in September and October 2007. The campaign was created by advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi in preparation for a speculated snap general election after Labour Party leader Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister in June. The campaign intended to win over the electorate by implicitly comparing Brown with Blair, dissociating the former from the latter's demonstrative self-presentation, and also implicitly compared Brown with Conservative Party leader David Cameron. It made Brown's perceived awkward persona a strength and his perceived lack of charisma and limited communication skills a virtue. The campaign ended after Brown said he would not call a snap election on 6 October.
Benjamin Charles Wegg-Prosser is a British consultant and political adviser. He is CEO and co-founder of Global Counsel, a London-based strategic consultancy and lobbying organisation, which has Peter Mandelson as its President. Wegg-Prosser was Tony Blair's Director of Strategic Communications at 10 Downing Street.
Damian McBride is a British political advisor. He is a former Whitehall civil servant and special adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. McBride began his civil service career at HM Customs and Excise. He worked with Customs and Excise and later became Head of Communications at the UK Treasury, before becoming a special adviser. In 2024 he was appointed a special adviser to Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary in the Labour government of Keir Starmer.
A Journey is a memoir by Tony Blair of his tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Published in the UK on 1 September 2010, it covers events from when he became leader of the Labour Party in 1994 and transformed it into "New Labour", holding power for a party record three successive terms, to his resignation and replacement as prime minister by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. Blair donated his £4.6-million advance, and all subsequent royalties, to the British Armed Forces charity the Royal British Legion. It became the fastest-selling autobiography of all time at the bookstore chain Waterstones. Promotional events were marked by anti-war protests.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
