# Matthew Taylor (political strategist)

Matthew Taylor CBE FAcSS (born 5 December 1960) is a British former political strategist and current Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, having previously led the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2021. In 2005, he was appointed by incumbent Prime Minister Tony Blair as head of the Number 10 Policy Unit. He is a writer, public speaker and broadcaster who has been a panellist on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze since 2008. In October 2016, he was appointed Chair of the Review of Modern Employment established by Prime Minister Theresa May; the Taylor Review report Good Work was published in July 2017. A response to the report was published in Feb 2018 by Rt Hon Greg Clark MP then Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

## Background

Taylor is the only son of the sociologist and broadcaster Laurie Taylor and the historian Jennie Howells. He was educated at Emanuel School, the University of Southampton and University of Warwick. He has three children.
While at the University of Southampton, Taylor wrote about Claire Holland's involvement in the 1983 CND badge controversy, which gained national attention.

## Career

Taylor became a Labour Party Warwickshire county councillor, and unsuccessfully sought to become the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington in the 1992 general election. In 1994 he was put in charge of the Labour Party's rebuttal operation, becoming a Campaign Co-ordinator and Director of Policy during the 1997 general election. He helped to write the Labour Party manifesto, the pledge-card, and developed Excalibur, a rapid rebuttal database for use against the Conservative Party. Taylor became Assistant General Secretary of the Labour Party under Margaret McDonagh, but after clashes with her left in December 1998.
Between 1998 and 2003, Taylor was the Director of the left of centre think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, and in 2003 the Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed him head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, giving him the task of drawing up the Labour Party's manifesto for the May 2005 general election. Following the re-election of the Labour government he became Chief Adviser on Strategy to the Prime Minister. Taylor was involved in several initiatives to engage the public with the political process, and played a role in developing the Labour Party's "Big Conversation" discussion forums.
He left in 2006 to become Chief Executive of the charity the Royal Society of Arts. He remained there until 2021.
Taylor has been awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Brighton, Northampton and Warwick, and is a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University. He has sat on a number of Governmental committees and inquiries on topics including higher education in Wales, the role of elected councillors, innovation in children's services and spinning out public services as social enterprises.
Matthew Taylor was interim Director of Labour Market Enforcement from August 2019 to January 2021.
He is a regular panellist on Radio 4's Moral Maze, devised and presents the discussion programme, Agree to Differ, which was first broadcast in 2014, and is an occasional presenter of Analysis. His opinion pieces have been published in several national newspapers, he has a monthly column with the Local Government Chronicle, writes occasional book reviews for Management Today and has contributed extended essays to publications such as Political Quarterly and written pamphlets and chapters for a number of books.
As well as his annual RSA Chief Executive lecture, he is a regular public speaker on topics including public service reform, social trends and education policy. He has chaired lectures and conferences for many organisations including the RSA, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Intelligence Squared and the Cabinet Office.
In December 2020, he announced that he would be standing down from the RSA in 2021, subsequently being appointed as Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation.
In 2024 he has argued for a renewed social contract for health and integrated care systems.

## Honours

In 2016, Taylor was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to employee rights.