After Dinner Speakers: Jo Moore, Olivier Pannis, Michael Grade

Jo Moore began working for the Labour Party in the old headquarters in Walworth Road before moving into the Millbank press office in the years up to the 1997 landslide. Those were the years when the party reinvented political communication as the art of spin. She co-ordinated announcements, lost difficult stories, and persuaded journalists into writing to the party line. After the election, she spent two years with the lobbying organisation Westminster Strategy. In 2000 she was recruited back to Labour politics, joining Stephen Byers at the Department of Trade and Industry. When Mr Byers was moved to the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, she went with him and notoriously emailed the press office with advice to ‘bury the bad news’ after September 11th. Jo Moore has a great story to tell from the heart of New Labour organisation.