Alastair Campbell is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster and activist who is known for his political rule during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party.
Campbell attended Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge where he studied French and German. Following graduation, he joined the Mirror Group. In 1982 Campbell moved to the London office of the Daily Mirror, becoming political correspondent before moving to Today in 1986 where he worked as news editor. Campbell returned to the Daily Mirror where he became political editor. He was also a close advisor to MP Neil Kinnock.
In 1994, shortly after Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party, Campbell became Blair's press secretary. In addition, Campbell was Blair's speechwriter and chief strategist. He played an important role in the run-up to the 1997 General Election. When the May 1997 election was won, Campbell served as Blair's chief press secretary (1997-2000).
Campbell was part of the core team that conducted the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. He was also seconded to overhaul the communications of NATO during the Kosovo War and became a central figure in the handling of the aftermath of Diana, Princess of Wales' death. Campbell also oversaw Blair's successful 2001 and 2005 General Election campaigns. Finally he went on to act as an adviser to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband in the 2010 and 2015 elections.
Immediately after the UK's referendum on membership of the EU in 2016, Campbell became involved in the People's Vote campaign for a referendum on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.
Throughout his time at Downing Street Campbell kept a diary from which selected extracts, titled 'The Blair Years', were published on 9th July 2007. In 2008 Campbell broadcast his own personal story with mental illness in a TV documentary and has continued to campaign around mental health awareness.
In March 2017, the newspaper The New European announced it had appointed Campbell as editor-at-large. In March 2022, Campbell launched the podcast 'The Rest is Politics' with Rory Stewart, which has a cult following and has been the top politics podcast in the UK in the Apple ratings since its launch.
In May 2023 he published his eighteenth book, 'But What Can I Do?', a call to arms to people, especially young people, to get more engaged in politics today. He analyses what he refers to as the "populism, polarisation and post-truth" of politics and the extremists who have created it, before showing how we can affect better change.