Jim Knight

Jim Knight was the longest serving Schools minister in the last Labour government; he also served as Rural Affairs minister and Employment minister. He attended weekly Cabinet in the year running up to the 2010 General Election, and was made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours List after that election. Lord Knight was the last Labour gain from the Tories when he won in Dorset in 2001, and surprised many by increasing his Parliamentary majority in 2005; however political gravity caught up with him in 2010 when the seat was regained by the Conservatives. Prior to his Parliamentary career Jim was a director of a small telephone directory publishing business in the West Country, leader of the Labour group on Mendip District Council, and Mayor of Frome.

Jim’s main policy interests are education, employment, skills and digital technology. Having co-ordinated Ed Balls Leadership Campaign he is now Shadow DEFRA minister in theHouse of Lords. He works as a consultant advising on the use of technology in education and employment; currently working with ITN Consulting, Innovate CV, TSL Education, Apple Europe, Alderwood Education, E C Harris and Step-A International Ltd. He is also on the board of the Arsenal Fanshare Society, is a vice-President of the Local Government Association, a trustee of the e-Learning Foundation and chair of the Institute for Education Business Excellence.