Matt Carter
General Secretary of the Labour Party
In office
January 2004 – September 2005
LeaderTony Blair
Preceded byDavid Triesman
Succeeded byPeter Watt
Personal details
Born (1972-03-22) 22 March 1972 (age 51)
Political partyLabour
Alma mater
OccupationAcademic, 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

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

  1. ^ 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.)
  2. ^ a b c Tom Happold (16 December 2003). "Labour gets Carter for general secretary". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  3. ^ "Upfront News - Forethought". Progress. 17 December 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Top Labour official leaves post". BBC News. 6 September 2005. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  5. ^ Rajeev Syal (24 March 2006). "Your secret loan can stay secret, Labour Party donors were told". The Times. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ "Labour loans to be investigated". BBC. 16 March 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "Burson-Marsteller EMEA". Bursonmarsteller.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  10. ^ "Matt Carter becomes new CEO of Burson-Marsteller UK". WPP. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
  11. ^ a b "Matt Carter". Message House. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  12. ^ "Penn Schoen Berland - Dr. Matt Carter". Psbresearch.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
Party political offices Preceded byDavid Triesman General Secretary of the Labour Party 2004–2005 Succeeded byPeter Watt
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