Alastair Campbell

Why organisations work with Alastair Campbell

• Direct experience of running government communications through general elections, war, and the daily pressure of Downing Street, applied to corporate equivalents: contested deals, regulatory crises, leadership transitions.
• A working method for handling hostile media and political environments that has been tested at the centre of UK government, not theorised about.
• Author of Winners: And How They Succeed, drawing named lessons from political, business, and sporting leaders that translate directly into how senior teams plan, decide, and execute.
• One of the UK’s most prominent voices on workplace mental health, with lived experience and the institutional credibility of an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
• A platform that reaches senior decision-makers at scale: The Rest Is Politics runs at around eight million downloads a month, giving him a current read on the political and economic context boards are trying to interpret.

Biography highlights

• Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair, 1997 to 2003, after running Blair’s communications in opposition from 1994.
• Co-host with Rory Stewart of The Rest Is Politics, one of the most-listened-to political podcasts in the UK and the leading politics show on YouTube during the 2024 general election.
• Bestselling author of The Blair Years, Winners: And How They Succeed, Living Better, and But What Can I Do?, alongside the All In The Mind novels.
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists; former Mind Champion of the Year; co-founder of Equality4MentalHealth.
• Editor-at-large of The New European and a long-standing political columnist and broadcaster.
• Senior journalism background at the Daily Mirror and Today before moving into political communications.

Biography

Communication inside government is judged on the days when something has gone wrong. For nine years from 1994, Alastair Campbell sat at the centre of those days for Tony Blair, first as press secretary, then as Director of Communications and Strategy, through the 1997 election, the early years of devolution, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, and Iraq. The job was not press handling. It was the operational core of how a government decided what to say, to whom, and when.

That experience now sits behind a second career as an author, broadcaster, and advisor. Winners: And How They Succeed set out a working theory of strategic leadership drawn from named figures across politics, business, and elite sport. The Blair Years and his subsequent diaries are the most detailed account of decision-making inside a modern UK government. His work is read by leaders who have to make calls under the same kind of scrutiny, in different sectors.

The mental health work is the second strand. Living Better is an account of his depression and the systems, clinical and personal, he has used to manage it. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a former Mind Champion of the Year, and a co-founder of Equality4MentalHealth, the cross-party campaign that secured an additional 600 million pounds for UK mental health services. For corporate audiences, this is not an add-on topic. It is a senior leader who has built a public discipline around a private struggle.

The Rest Is Politics, his podcast with former Conservative minister Rory Stewart, reaches several million listeners a month and led the UK politics charts through the 2024 election. The podcast is an unusual asset for a speaker: a current, weekly read on the geopolitical and domestic context in which boards and executive teams are now operating.

Key speaking topics

• Communications strategy under pressure
• Leadership and decision-making in crisis
• Political risk and the geopolitical operating context
• Workplace mental health and senior leader resilience
• Lessons from winners across politics, business, and sport
• Media, scrutiny, and reputation management
• Campaign strategy and persuasion

Ideal for

• CEOs, chairs, and executive committees facing contested decisions, regulatory scrutiny, or leadership transitions
• Communications, public affairs, and corporate affairs leaders responsible for crisis and reputation
• HR and people leaders building senior-level mental health and resilience programmes
• Leadership development audiences and partner conferences in professional services, financial services, and regulated sectors

Audience outcomes

• A clearer view of how to make and communicate decisions when scrutiny is hostile and information is incomplete.
• Specific, named lessons from inside government and elite performance environments on what separates winners from competent operators.
• A more honest framework for senior leaders to think about their own resilience, including mental health, as a strategic variable rather than a personal weakness.
• A current read on the political and geopolitical environment shaping commercial decisions over the next cycle.
• Practical reference points for handling media, public scrutiny, and internal communication under pressure.