Philippa Stroud, Baroness Stroud

Philippa Stroud, Baroness Stroud
Born 1965 (age 52–53)
Education St Catherine's School, Bramley
Alma mater University of Birmingham
Occupation Think tanker

Philippa Claire Stroud, Baroness Stroud (born 1965) is a British think tanker. She is the chief executive officer of the Legatum Institute, and a co-founder and former executive director of the think tank the Centre for Social Justice. She is a member of the Conservative Party and in 2009 The Daily Telegraph named her as the 82nd most influential right-winger, ahead of the last Conservative leader Michael Howard.[1] She was created a life peer on 1 October 2015 taking the title Baroness Stroud, of Fulham in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.[2]

Education

She was educated at St Catherine's School, Bramley, and the University of Birmingham.

Career

Stroud spent seventeen years in poverty-fighting projects and published a book on social injustice. In 1987-89 she worked in Hong Kong and Macau amongst the addict community.[3] From 1989-96 she pioneered a four-stage residential support project in Bedford enabling homeless people to move off the streets and to become contributing members of the community. From 2001-2003 Stroud developed a project to care for addicts, the homeless and those in debt in Birmingham.[4]

Politics

House of Lords

Philippa Stroud was made a life peer in October 2015[2]. In 2018 she has made speeches in the House of Lords on the topics of Human Trafficking[5], the European Union withdrawal bill and the Family Relationships bill.[6] She has been an advocate of reducing poverty in the UK through her work at the Center for Social Justice, the Legatum Institute and in the House of Lords.[7][8]

In February 2018 she made a speech in support of the Family Relationships (Impact Assessment and Targets) Bill which would help ensure future Government policy would be assessed for its impact on family relationships. She argued that the UK has “one of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe” and that family breakdowns entrenched poverty. Stroud believes family relationships should be a priority for Government to help reduce poverty, with the highest poverty rate being attributed to single parent families.[9]

In March 2018, Stroud made an appeal for the UK to accept more refugee children into the UK and to reunite more children with their families. Her speech garnered support from Lord Judd, Lord Tunnicliffe and Lord Hope who supported for her call for Britain to remain compassionate in its approach to accepting refugees.[10]

Organisations

In 2003, Stroud co-founded the Centre for Social Justice.[11][12]

After the 2010 General Election, Stroud was appointed as a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where she worked to help create and implement the Government’s welfare reforms.[13][3] She returned to the Centre for Social Justice in 2015.

Stroud became the chief executive officer of the Legatum Institute in October 2016.[14] Under her leadership, the think tank has promoted research and ideas demonstrating the opportunities and potential solutions for the UK’s trade policies post-Brexit.[14] However, the Institute now focuses more broadly on the benefits of global trade through its Special Trade Commission.[15]

In 2016, Stroud founded the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) with the aim to create a new UK poverty measure to replace the previous official measure abolished by the Conservative government in 2015.[16][17][18] In September 2018 the SMC, led by Stroud, published a report using the new measure of poverty for the UK which went beyond the former official measure (which focused solely on income) by including core living costs such as housing, childcare and disability into the equation.[19] The report found that 14.4 million people were living in poverty in 2017, including 4.5 million children.[20] Stroud called on the Government to use this new measure to focus efforts and attention on creating policies and solutions to alleviate poverty levels in the UK.[21]


Elections

Stroud has twice been a Conservative candidate in a general election: she came third in Birmingham Ladywood in 2005;[22] and on 6 May 2010, as candidate for Sutton and Cheam, she came second to incumbent Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow.[23]

Controversy

During the 2010 election campaign, it was claimed by The Observer, but denied by Stroud, that in 1989, having returned from Hong Kong, she had founded the Kings Arms Trust[24] in Bedford, that provided religiously-based social services to alcoholics and drug addicts. Twenty-one years later, the church attracted controversy when an article in The Observer of 2 May 2010 alleged they had tried to "cure" homosexuals and transgender individuals by driving out their 'demons' in the name of God.[25] Immediately after the allegations of the article, Stroud responded in a statement saying that it was "categorically untrue that I believe homosexuality to be an 'illness'".[26] David Cameron defended Stroud stating that "She believes in gay equality" and had made "a very clear statement to say she was completely misreported".[27]

Stroud is a member of ChristChurch London of which her husband David is senior leader.[28]

References

  1. ↑ Dale, Iain; Brian Brivati (4 October 2009), Top 100 most influential Right-wingers: 100-51, London: The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 3 May 2010
  2. 1 2 "notice 2410213". The London Gazette.
  3. 1 2 "Philippa Stroud on family breakdown, welfare reform and Brexit". London: Capx. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  4. ↑ Centre for Social Justice - People, Centre for Social Justice, archived from the original on 9 April 2011, retrieved 10 May 2010
  5. ↑ "Baroness Stroud explains the need for security collaboration with the EU to tackle trafficking". YouTube.
  6. ↑ "Philippa Stroud, Baroness Stroud". TheyWorkForYou.
  7. ↑ "Poverty is one of the UK's biggest injustices". Huffington Post.
  8. ↑ "Stroud moves to Legatum from the Centre for Social Justice". Conservative Home.
  9. ↑ "Family Relationships (Impact Assessment and Targets Bill) - Second Reading". TheyWorkForYou.
  10. ↑ "European Union (Withdrawal) Bill - House of Lords". Hansard.
  11. ↑ "Philippa Stroud". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Legatum under investigation by Charity Commission". London: The Ferret. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  13. ↑ "Nothing found for New Msm 212229 Philippa Stroud Appointed Special Advisor Department Work And Pensions". www.tips-q.com.
  14. 1 2 O'Murchu, Cynthia; Mance, Henry (December 4, 2017). "Legatum: the think-tank at intellectual heart of 'hard' Brexit". Financial Times. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
  15. ↑ "IEA poaches Legatum's Shankar Singham and top team". CityAM.
  16. ↑ . Social Metrics Commission https://www.socialmetricscommission.org.uk/about/. Retrieved 19 September 2018. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ↑ "Half a million pensioners 'out of poverty' overnight". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  18. ↑ "Middle class take more drink and drugs than poor". The Times. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  19. ↑ "What is the new UK poverty measure – and why is it needed?". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  20. ↑ "New study finds 4.5 million UK children living in poverty". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  21. ↑ "New measure of poverty proposed for UK". The Times. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  22. ↑ "Philippa Stroud: Electoral history and profile". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  23. ↑ Election 2010 Constituency Sutton & Cheam, BBC News, 7 May 2010, retrieved 8 May 2010
  24. ↑ Doward, Jamie; Rogers, Richard; Flyn, Cal (2 May 2010). "Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people". The Guardian. London.
  25. ↑ Jamie Doward, Cal Flyn and Richard Rogers, "Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people", The Observer, 2 May 2010
  26. ↑ Beckford, Martin (2 May 2010). "General Election 2010: Tory candidate 'tried to 'cure' gay people through prayer'". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  27. ↑ "Election: Cameron backs Stroud after church claims". BBC News. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  28. ↑ "Staff | ChristChurch London". christchurchlondon.org. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
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