Roger Liddle
Roger Liddle is a Labour Whip and a frontbench spokesperson on Europe and Foreign Affairs in the House of Lords. Roger joined the Lords as a life Peer in 2010.
Roger's background is in policy development and politics, with a particular focus on Europe. He was special adviser on European Affairs to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair (1997 – 2004) and chaired the Government's New Industry, New Jobs Advisory Panel in BIS (2009-2010). From 2004-2007, Roger served in the European Commission, first in the Cabinet of Peter Mandelson (the EU Trade Commissioner) and then as economic adviser to the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. From 2007 to 2010 he chaired Cumbria Vision, the sub-regional economic development partnership in his home County.
He currently chairs Policy Network, the international progressive think tank, and is a Director of the University of Cumbria.
Roger has written extensively on European and British Affairs, including The Blair Revolution (with Peter Mandelson, 1996), Global Europe, Social Europe (with Anthony Giddens and Patrick Diamond, 2006) and Beyond New Labour (with Patrick Diamond, 2009), as well as several other Fabian Society and Policy Network pamphlets.
He is the co-author of two papers for the President of the Commission's think tank, the Bureau of European Policy Advisers, on "Europe's Social Reality" (February 2007) and the "Single Market: Yesterday and Tomorrow" (July 2006). He has contributed to various edited collections on the Single Market, the Social Challenges facing Europe, The Case for a Social Investment Strategy and Britain's European Policy.
In his free time he enjoys reading history, cooking and entertaining, playing tennis badly, opera and Italy.
For more information, read Roger's Parliamentary biography - available here.