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Simon Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Woolley of Woodford
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
14 October 2019
Life Peerage
Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge
Incumbent
Assumed office
2021
Preceded byGeoff Ward
Personal details
Born (1961-12-24) 24 December 1961 (age 63)
Leicester
Alma materMiddlesex University
Queen Mary University of London
Known forPolitical activism
Operation Black Vote (OBV) founder

Simon Andrew Woolley, Baron Woolley of Woodford (born 24 December 1961), is a British politician and activist. He is the founder and director of Operation Black Vote (OBV) and Trustee of the charity Police Now, and has been Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, since October 2021.[1][2]

Woolley has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords since October 2019. He was chair of the Government of the United Kingdom Race Disparity Unit Advisory Group until July 2020.

Early life and education

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Woolley was born to Lolita, a Windrush generation nurse in Leicester in the East Midlands of England on 24 December 1961,[3] and aged two, she sent him to a Catholic orphanage.[4] He was fostered then adopted and raised by parents Phillis and Dan Fox.[5][6] Woolley grew up on the St Matthew's estate,[5] which he has described as "a working-class council estate but it was a hard-working council estate. You never felt that you were short of anything."[6] Woolley's adoptive parents fostered a number of other children during his childhood. Dan Fox died when Woolley was 14 years old.[6]

Woolley left school without any A-Level qualifications and started his working life in an apprenticeship[7] as a car mechanic.[8] He moved to London at the age of 19[6] and spent four successful years in advertising, employed by The Rank Organisation in Wardour Street, before deciding to study Spanish and Politics at Middlesex University.[7] During his studies, Woolley spent a year in Costa Rica and Colombia.[8] He studied at Queen Mary University of London, and was awarded Master of Arts in Hispanic literature from the University of London in 1994.

Career

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Woolley became engaged with British politics, joining the campaign group Charter 88.[7] He started to research the potential impact of a black vote, which he argued could influence electoral outcomes in marginal seats.[7][9][10] These findings encouraged Woolley to launch Operation Black Vote (OBV) in 1996.[11] Operation Black Vote has launched voter registration campaigns, an app to inspire and inform black and minority ethnic (BME) individuals and worked with Saatchi & Saatchi on a pro bono advertising campaign.[12]

Woolley also worked to empower communities and to integrate better politics education into the school curriculum.[13] The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation estimated that Woolley's efforts encouraged millions of people to vote.[12] Much of his work has been around nurturing BME civic and politic talent: the then Home Secretary Theresa May said in a speech in Westminster in 2016: "Today we celebrate a record number of BME MPs in parliament – 41. British politics and British society greatly benefits when we can utilise diversity’s teeming talent pool. That’s why today we are announcing that in the months ahead we will begin a new MP and business shadowing scheme."[14]

Woolley served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.[15] In 2008, the Government Equalities Office released Woolley's report How to achieve better BME political representation.[16] He was appointed to the Equalities Commission in 2009.[17] He has launched two governmental investigations, including REACH, which looked to tackle the alienation of black youth, as well as working with Harriet Harman on the political representation of black and minority ethnic women.[18] He worked with Bernie Grant, Al Sharpton, Naomi Campbell and Jesse Jackson on grassroots campaigns highlighting racial discrimination.[7]

In 2017, Operation Black Vote, The Guardian newspaper and Green Park Ltd launched the Colour of Power, which to date is the most in-depth look at the racial make-up of Britain's top jobs across 28 sectors that dominate British society.[19] The results were reported in The Guardian: "Barely 3% of Britain’s most powerful and influential people are from black and minority ethnic groups, according to a broad new analysis that highlights startling inequality despite decades of legislation to address discrimination".[20]

In 2019, Woolley called for local councillors to become more diverse, after it emerged that of the 200 councillors in South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset, none was from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background.[21] In May 2019, Woolley and Operation Black Vote launched a ground-breaking report into more than 130 key local authorities that emphasised the lack of BME representation. In over one third of those local authorities, many with sizeable BME populations, they either had no or just one BME councillor.[22][23]

Along with former Downing Street advisors Nick Timothy and Will Tanner, Woolley is seen as the inspiration and one of the architects for the Government of the United Kingdom Race Disparity Unit, and he served as the Advisory Chair.[24][25] He has worked with the Open Source Foundation on their global drugs policy projects. He secured £90 million of funding to encourage disadvantaged young people to work.[7][26] When Operation Black Vote started, there were four black or minority ethnic members of parliament; as of 2019, there are more than 50.[7] Woolley has written for The Guardian, Huffington Post and The Independent.[27][28][29]

On 30 March 2021, it was announced that Woolley had been elected as the next principal of Homerton College, Cambridge.[30] On 1 October 2021, he took up the appointment in succession to Professor Geoffrey Ward.[31] Woolley is the first black man to be head of an Oxbridge college.[32][33]

In 2022, Woolley's memoir Soar: My Journey from Council Estate to House of Lords was published, with a foreword by Rev. Jesse Jackson (Manilla Press/Bonnier Books).[34][35][36][37]

In July 2023, Woolley was a guest on BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs and spoke of his love for his teenage son Luca and their shared musical tastes.[38][4]

Awards and honours

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Woolley has been included in the Powerlist – which features the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom – every year since 2012.[39][40][41] He was selected as one of the Evening Standard's Most Influential People in 2010.[42] In 2010 and 2011, he was selected as one of The Daily Telegraph's 100 Most Influential People.

In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his equality efforts from the University of Westminster.[16] He was made an Honorary fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 2022.[43]

Woolley was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2019 Birthday Honours for his services to race equality, thus becoming Sir Simon Woolley.[5][44] He said he had to think hard about accepting the honour: "Many black or minority ethnic individuals have to think hard about whether to take an award or not, particularly those offered an award with empire in its title ... It's a difficult choice and whatever decision they make I fully support them. In the case of the knighthood, I didn't have to make that exact call. It has more to do with medieval times and the 13th century than empire."[7]

Woolley was nominated for a life peerage to sit as a Crossbencher in the House of Lords by Prime Minister Theresa May in her 2019 Resignation Honours List.[45] He was created Baron Woolley of Woodford, of Woodford in the London Borough of Redbridge, on 14 October 2019.[46] He sat on the Lords Youth Unemployment Committee from 28 January 2021 until 16 November 2021.[47]

References

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  1. ^ "Homerton College News | Homerton College".
  2. ^ "Equalities activist first black man to be elected head of Oxbridge college". Barry & District News. 31 March 2021.
  3. ^ "Woolley, Sir Simon, (born 24 Dec. 1961), Co-Founder and Director, Operation Black Vote, since 1996". Who's Who 2020. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2019. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U250914. ISBN 9780199540884. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Simon Woolley | Voice for change - Saga". www.saga.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Race and equalities activist Simon Woolley to be knighted by Queen | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d Patel, Asha (5 January 2020). "'I had no excuse not to change my world' - Operation Black Vote campaigner explains how growing up in St Matthews shaped his views". LeicestershireLive. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Muir, Hugh (7 June 2019). "Birthday honours list: Operation Black Vote's Simon Woolley knighted". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  8. ^ a b "MDX alumnus Lord Woolley gives his maiden speech in Grenfell Inquiry debate". Middlesex University London. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Simon Woolley: The importance of ethnic-minority participation in politics | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  10. ^ Meghji, Shafik. "Interview: Political motivator – Simon Woolley, national coordinator, Operation Black Vote". www.placemakingresource.com. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  11. ^ Chakelian, Anoosh (2 March 2015). "Operation Black Vote: on the road with the bus that could decide the election". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  12. ^ a b "| Operation Black Vote". esmeefairbairn.org.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  13. ^ Committee, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform (14 November 2014). HC 232 – Voter Engagement in the UK. The Stationery Office. ISBN 9780215078773.
  14. ^ "Theresa May celebrates BME MPs in Parliament | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  15. ^ Schaffer, Gavin (20 March 2015). "There are things we need to say about race – but Trevor Phillips didn't say them". The Conversation. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  16. ^ a b "Simon Woolley". Equality Challenge Unit. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Simon Woolley appointed to Equality Commission | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 19 November 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  18. ^ "Open Society Foundations". www.opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  19. ^ "The Colour of Power". www.thecolourofpower.com. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  20. ^ Duncan, Pamela; Holder, Josh (24 September 2017). "Revealed: Britain's most powerful elite is 97% white". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  21. ^ "'Shocking' lack of diversity on councils". BBC News. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  22. ^ Syal, Rajeev; Clarke, Amelia (25 April 2019). "Portsmouth and Brighton among 'least representative councils for BAME people'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  23. ^ "BAME Local Political Representation Audit 2019 | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  24. ^ Woolley, Simon (10 October 2017). "Now we must act to unleash a deluge of untapped talent". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  25. ^ "OBV's role in the Race Equality Audit | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  26. ^ Walker, Peter (30 April 2019). "Theresa May's social mobility promise branded a failure". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  27. ^ "Simon Woolley". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  28. ^ "Simon Woolley". The Independent. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  29. ^ "Simon Woolley". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  30. ^ "Lord Simon Woolley elected Principal". Homerton College. University of Cambridge. 30 March 2021. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  31. ^ "Lord Simon Woolley elected as next Principal of Homerton College". For staff. University of Cambridge. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  32. ^ "Simon Woolley: First black man appointed head of Oxbridge college". BBC News. 1 April 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  33. ^ Beattie, Jason (27 April 2022). "Simon Woolley's journey from a council estate to Cambridge University and House of Lords". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  34. ^ Kenworthy, Laura (13 April 2022). "Soar: My Journey From Council Estate To The House of Lords". Homerton College, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  35. ^ Holloway, Lester (20 September 2022). "'We have the power to change the system'". The Voice. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  36. ^ "Beyond Breakfast with Shazmin Shamsuddin – Lord Simon Woolley". thevibes.com. 29 August 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  37. ^ Frimpong, Keisha (30 August 2022). "EIBF 2022: Simon Woolley: Shaking Up the Establishment Review". Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  38. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Simon Woolley, crossbench peer". BBC. July 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  39. ^ "OBV's Simon Woolley joins Black 'Powerlist' | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 29 October 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  40. ^ Joses, Joy (27 October 2018). "Who are the influential Black Britons honoured in Powerlist 2019?". Melan Magazine. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  41. ^ Rawlinson, Kevin (23 October 2018). "Duchess of Sussex in Powerlist of top 100 black people in Britain". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  42. ^ "Evening Standard: London's 1000 most influential people | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  43. ^ "Founder of Operation Black Vote Lord Woolley elected Honorary Fellow". Magdalen College, University of Oxford. 15 January 2022.
  44. ^ "No. 62666". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 2019. p. B2.
  45. ^ "Resignation Peerages 2019" (PDF). Cabinet Office. 10 September 2019.
  46. ^ "No. 62800". The London Gazette. 18 October 2019. p. 18716.
  47. ^ "Parliamentary career for Lord Woolley of Woodford". members.parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
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