Studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; 1988, Master's, Kennedy Scholarship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. Formerly: with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations; Research Fellow, Institute for Public Policy Research. 1992-94, Secretary, Commission on Social Justice, set up by the Leader of the Labour Party to work out new approaches to welfare policy. 1994-97, Head of Policy for Tony Blair, working on the policies that would help Labour into government. 1997-2001, Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit during Labour's first term in office; helped found the Centre for European Reform. 2001, Member of Parliament for South Shields. Editor: Reinventing the Left, and Paying for Inequality.