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.
Matt Carter | |
---|---|
General Secretary of the Labour Party | |
In office January 2004 – September 2005 | |
Leader | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | David Triesman |
Succeeded by | Peter Watt |
Personal details | |
Born | 22 March 1972 |
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Academic, political operative, communications consultant |
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]