Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell is a writer, podcaster, communicator, campaigner and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, broadcasting, charities, and consultancy.

He has written nineteen books in the past sixteen years, including eleven volumes of diaries, four novels, a bestselling analysis of what it takes to win in politics, business and sport, "Winners and How They Succeed," and two personal accounts of depression and the pursuit of happiness. His second mental health memoir, "Living Better: How I learned to survive depression," was also a Sunday Times bestseller, as was his last book, "But What Can I Do?," an analysis of what has gone wrong with politics, with some ideas about how to put it right. He is currently working on a politics book aimed at young children.

In the spring of 2022, he launched a podcast, "The Rest Is Politics," with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart, which has regularly topped the UK podcast charts, and they have sold out some of the biggest and most prestigious venues in the UK, among them the Albert Hall and the Usher Hall, for live events. They now also do an interview channel, "Rest Is Politics Leading," and have talked to a number of former Prime Ministers, including John Major, Theresa May and Tony Blair, leading international politicians, among them Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Francois Hollande, and a host of British figures from politics and beyond.

He was for many years chairman of fund-raising of Bloodwise, Britain’s main blood cancer charity, but in recent years has become increasingly involved with mental health charities and causes, speaking about his own experience of depression, psychosis and addiction, and of his brother Donald’s lifelong struggle with schizophrenia. A former ‘Mind Champion of the Year’, he is an ambassador for several charities, including Mind, Rethink and Alcohol Concern. He is a Global Ambassador for Australians for Mental Health. He co-founded the all-party campaign, Equality4MentalHealth, which was credited in Parliament by then Chancellor George Osborne with securing an extra £600million for mental health services. In November 2017 Campbell was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in recognition of his leadership role in breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness, and in fighting for better services.

Campbell has been Humanitas Visiting Professor on media at Cambridge University, and has been honored by University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork for his contribution to the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He is on the advisory board of Portland PR, and in addition independently acts as an advisor to governments, businesses, charities, sports organizations and high profile individuals. He helped to found the world’s first university in football business, UCFB, in Burnley, Lancashire, which has since extended to Wembley and Manchester City’s Etihad stadium, as well as overseas.

In December 2017, a musical project he was involved in won the Community Award at the Na Trads traditional Scottish music awards. He had played the bagpipes at a concert in Glasgow earlier in the year, staged entirely by musicians with links to Tiree, where his father was born and raised. The Tiree Community Songbook was made into a CD, which won the Traditional Music award. During the COVID pandemic, he performed on the bagpipes in a charity song written by Martin Gillespie of Scottish band Skerryvore, “Everyday Heroes”, which topped the iTunes download charts within hours of release. In November 2021 Campbell was featured in the BBC series "Winter Walks."

In 2021, following the departure of Piers Morgan from ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he was asked to be one of a pool of new presenters. In the summer of 2022 he co-presented with Tory Peer Sayeeda Warsi the Channel 4 show, Make Me Prime Minister, aimed at finding “ordinary people” who wanted to be politicians.

He is a sought after speaker at events around the world, specializing in strategic communications, leadership, team building and crisis management. Since publishing Winners, he has been asked to support a number of leading sports organizations.

He lives mainly in London, with his partner of forty-three years, journalist and education campaigner Fiona Millar.