Jonathan Powell (chief of staff to Tony Blair)
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Nicholas Powell (born 14 August 1956) is a British
diplomat
who served as the first Downing Street Chief of Staff, under British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
throughout his premiership
, from his election in 1997 until his resignation
in 2007. The official Downing Street website described his job as having "direct responsibility for leading and co-ordinating operations across Number 10
". Despite his low profile, he was arguably Mr Blair's closest political aide. On 7 December 2007, Morgan Stanley
announced that Powell would be joining the bank as a full-time senior managing director of its investment banking
division.
. He has three brothers: Charles, who was foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
; Chris
, a former advertiser; and Roderick. Although Powell pronounces the family name in the conventional manner (to rhyme with 'towel'), Charles pronounces it as 'pole'.
Powell was educated at the Cathedral Choir School, Canterbury, and The King's School, Canterbury
, and studied history at University College, Oxford
and the University of Pennsylvania
. He then worked for the BBC
and Granada TV
before joining the Foreign Office
in 1979.
in 1979 and was posted as Third Secretary, later Second Secretary, to Lisbon
in 1981. He was subsequently posted to UKDEL CDE Stockholm
in 1986 and to UKDEL CSCE Vienna
in September 1986. In November 2010 Powell wrote an article for The Guardian
that was critical of the publication by WikiLeaks
of the contents of US diplomatic cables
. Powell argued, "It is very difficult to conduct diplomacy effectively when your confidential deliberations are made public in this way. Mutual trust is the basis of such relations and once that trust is breached, candid conversations are less likely. It is like having a conversation in the pub with your best mate about problems with your girlfriend and then finding the content, possibly with a bit of spin added, posted on the internet. You won't be having that conversation again any time soon."
Tony Blair in 1995. After Labour's election victory in 1997, both Powell and Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell
, were given jobs in Downing Street
. Controversially, both were given powers to issue orders to civil servants – unprecedented for political appointees.
In the early years of the Blair administration, one of Powell's most crucial jobs was his role in the Northern Ireland
peace talks that led to the Good Friday agreement
. In March 2008, Powell called for tactics used successfully in Northern Ireland to be applied to the War on Terrorism
. He suggested western governments hold talks with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, just as the British government negotiated with the Provisional IRA
in order to bring about a peace deal in Northern Ireland. His suggestion was publicly rejected by the British Foreign Office.
His book Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland details the negotiations which finally led to the agreement which brought back power-sharing devolved government to Northern Ireland.
Powell continued to be both a key right-hand man for Blair throughout his time in office, as well as a trusted advisor on a wide range of policy issues. He was described by The Guardian as being "at the heart of all his (Blair's) key foreign policy initiatives." It is believed he was questioned twice by police, the second time under caution, during the investigation into the Cash for Honours affair. While many in Blair's "kitchen cabinet" – including Campbell – departed before Blair's resignation, Powell remained in Downing Street until June 2007.
, held following the death of Dr David Kelly in 2003. Powell gave evidence to the inquiry on 18 August, and described several crucial meetings he had attended at which Dr Kelly had been discussed before his name appeared in the media. An email sent by Powell to the JIC chairman John Scarlett
in September 2002 was also highlighted, as it appeared to suggest that a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq should be toughened. Many commentators criticised the style of government described by Powell as too informal, some dubbing it "sofa government", as many meetings were held in relaxed surroundings without proper notes being taken. The subsequent and separate Butler Report
also emphasised these criticisms. Both the Hutton and Butler reports indicated Powell was very close to Blair.
On 18 January 2010 Powell gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
who served as the first Downing Street Chief of Staff, under British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
throughout his premiership
Premiership of Tony Blair
The Premiership of Tony Blair began on 2 May 1997 and ended on 27 June 2007. While serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Blair concurrently served as the First Lord of the Treasury, the Minister for the Civil Service, the Leader of the Labour Party , and a Member of Parliament for the...
, from his election in 1997 until his resignation
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2007
The 2007 Labour Party Leadership Election was formally triggered on 10 May 2007 by the resignation of Tony Blair, Labour Leader since the previous leadership contest on 21 July 1994...
in 2007. The official Downing Street website described his job as having "direct responsibility for leading and co-ordinating operations across Number 10
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
". Despite his low profile, he was arguably Mr Blair's closest political aide. On 7 December 2007, Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....
announced that Powell would be joining the bank as a full-time senior managing director of its investment banking
Investment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
division.
Early life
Powell is the son of Air Vice-Marshal John Frederick PowellJohn Frederick Powell
Air Vice-Marshal John Frederick Powell OBE was a long serving-officer at RAF College Cranwell.Powell was born in Somerset on 12 June 1915. He was educated at Lancing College and King's College, Cambridge...
. He has three brothers: Charles, who was foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
; Chris
Chris Powell (advertiser)
Sir John Christopher "Chris" Powell , son of Air Vice-Marshal John Powell OBE, is a British advertiser.-Advertiser:Powell joined the advertising agency Boase Massimi Pollitt in 1969, was appointed to the board in 1972 and made managing director three years later...
, a former advertiser; and Roderick. Although Powell pronounces the family name in the conventional manner (to rhyme with 'towel'), Charles pronounces it as 'pole'.
Powell was educated at the Cathedral Choir School, Canterbury, and The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
, and studied history at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
and the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. He then worked for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and Granada TV
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
before joining the Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
in 1979.
Diplomatic career
Powell joined the FCOFCO
FCO may mean:*Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Foreign Affairs*Ferro Carril Oeste, a football club of Buenos Aires and the eponymous railway*Financial Control Officer, a controller...
in 1979 and was posted as Third Secretary, later Second Secretary, to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
in 1981. He was subsequently posted to UKDEL CDE Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1986 and to UKDEL CSCE Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in September 1986. In November 2010 Powell wrote an article for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
that was critical of the publication by WikiLeaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
of the contents of US diplomatic cables
United States diplomatic cables leak
The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began in February 2010 when WikiLeaks—a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers—began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates,...
. Powell argued, "It is very difficult to conduct diplomacy effectively when your confidential deliberations are made public in this way. Mutual trust is the basis of such relations and once that trust is breached, candid conversations are less likely. It is like having a conversation in the pub with your best mate about problems with your girlfriend and then finding the content, possibly with a bit of spin added, posted on the internet. You won't be having that conversation again any time soon."
Downing Street Chief of Staff
Powell left the diplomatic service to become the Chief of Staff for Leader of the OppositionLeader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government...
Tony Blair in 1995. After Labour's election victory in 1997, both Powell and Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, were given jobs in Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...
. Controversially, both were given powers to issue orders to civil servants – unprecedented for political appointees.
In the early years of the Blair administration, one of Powell's most crucial jobs was his role in the Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
peace talks that led to the Good Friday agreement
Belfast Agreement
The Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement , sometimes called the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process...
. In March 2008, Powell called for tactics used successfully in Northern Ireland to be applied to the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. He suggested western governments hold talks with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, just as the British government negotiated with the Provisional IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
in order to bring about a peace deal in Northern Ireland. His suggestion was publicly rejected by the British Foreign Office.
His book Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland details the negotiations which finally led to the agreement which brought back power-sharing devolved government to Northern Ireland.
Powell continued to be both a key right-hand man for Blair throughout his time in office, as well as a trusted advisor on a wide range of policy issues. He was described by The Guardian as being "at the heart of all his (Blair's) key foreign policy initiatives." It is believed he was questioned twice by police, the second time under caution, during the investigation into the Cash for Honours affair. While many in Blair's "kitchen cabinet" – including Campbell – departed before Blair's resignation, Powell remained in Downing Street until June 2007.
Inquiries
Powell's role as Blair's chief of staff came under close scrutiny during the Hutton InquiryHutton Inquiry
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.On 18 July 2003, Kelly, an employee...
, held following the death of Dr David Kelly in 2003. Powell gave evidence to the inquiry on 18 August, and described several crucial meetings he had attended at which Dr Kelly had been discussed before his name appeared in the media. An email sent by Powell to the JIC chairman John Scarlett
John Scarlett
Sir John McLeod Scarlett, KCMG, OBE was Director General of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 2004 to 2009...
in September 2002 was also highlighted, as it appeared to suggest that a dossier on the threat posed by Iraq should be toughened. Many commentators criticised the style of government described by Powell as too informal, some dubbing it "sofa government", as many meetings were held in relaxed surroundings without proper notes being taken. The subsequent and separate Butler Report
Butler Review
On February 3, 2004, the British Government announced an inquiry into the intelligence relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which played a key part in the Government's decision to invade Iraq in 2003. A similar investigation was set up in the USA...
also emphasised these criticisms. Both the Hutton and Butler reports indicated Powell was very close to Blair.
On 18 January 2010 Powell gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry.
Personal life
Powell has four children: two daughters with his partner, Sarah Helm, and two sons from a previous marriage.Books by Powell
- Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, The Bodley Head, 2008. ISBN 1847920322.
- The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World, The Bodley Head, 2010. ISBN 1847921221.
Radio
- On Machiavellian Politics Jonathan Powell speaks on BBC The Forum
External links
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3893065.stm Profile on BBC site
- 'One at a Time', review of Great Hatred, Little Room in the Oxonian Review