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UK Labour Adviser Claire Ainsley to Direct New PPI Project

  • November 29, 2022

Ainsley most recently served as Executive Director of Policy for the Labour Party’s Leader of the Official Opposition, Keir Starmer

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) announced it is expanding its international operation to the United Kingdom, bringing on Claire Ainsley as Director of the PPI Project on Center-Left Renewal. This new U.K.-U.S. initiative aims to catalyze and create renewal of the center-left, as social democrats have seen a revival in their fortunes around the world.

The PPI Project on Center-Left Renewal will look at the political forces driving the changes and how center-left parties can build sustainable majorities in volatile times. Most recently, Ainsley was Executive Director of Policy for the Labour Party’s Leader of the Official Opposition, Keir Starmer MP.

“There is a real opportunity to galvanise a center-left agenda that can win in parliaments and for people. I am really excited to be working with PPI on this new U.S.-U.K. collaboration and look forward to working in partnership across the nations for our common cause,” said Claire Ainsley.

“We’re delighted to join forces with Claire Ainsley, whose insights into working class alienation in Great Britain also are highly relevant to America’s Democrats and center-left parties across Europe,” said Will Marshall, President and Founder of the Progressive Policy Institute. “Our collaboration aims at giving these voters a more compelling center-left alternative to right-wing populism.”

“Claire Ainsley is a wonderful addition to the PPI team. As our friends in the Labour Party are on the verge of returning to lead the U.K. after a disastrous few years of Tory failures, there is much to learn and compare in the U.K. and U.S. The center-left leadership of ideas and policy that benefit the working class is what PPI is cemented in and Claire brings a needed expert voice to our work in the U.S. and U.K.,” said Lindsay Mark Lewis, Executive Director of the Progressive Policy Institute.

The Project on Center-Left Renewal will officially launch in January of 2023. This is the second international project for PPI, with PPI Brussels established in 2018.

Prior to joining the Progressive Policy Institute as Director of the PPI Project on Center-Left Renewal, Claire Ainsley was the Executive Director of Policy to Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition and U.K. Labour Party. Claire also served as the Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where she led JRF’s work on the social and political attitudes of people with low incomes. She is the author of “The New Working Class: How to Win Hearts, Minds and Votes,” which was published in May 2018.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow PPI on Twitter: @ppi

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Aaron White; awhite@ppionline.org

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