Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

The Right Honourable The Lord Adonis PC
Official portrait, 2019
Chairman of the European Movement
In office 7 March 2021 – 14 December 2022
President	The Lord Heseltine
Vice President	The Lord Clarke of Nottingham The Baroness Quin
Preceded by	Stephen Dorrell
Succeeded by	Mike Galsworthy
Vice Chairman of the European Movement
In office 15 January 2019 – 7 March 2021
President	The Lord Heseltine
Vice President	The Lord Clarke of Nottingham The Baroness Quin
Preceded by	Richard Corbett
Succeeded by	Richard Wilson
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Geoff Hoon
Succeeded by	Philip Hammond
Minister of State for Transport
In office 3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Rosie Winterton
Succeeded by	Sadiq Khan
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools and Learners[1]
In office 10 May 2005 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Tony Blair Gordon Brown
Preceded by	The Lord Filkin
Succeeded by	Sarah McCarthy-Fry
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 May 2005 Life peerage
Personal details
Born	Andreas Adonis (1963-02-22) 22 February 1963 (age 61) Hampstead, London, England[2]
Political party	Labour (1995–2015, since 2017)
Other political affiliations	Liberal Democrats (1988–95) SDP (1985–88)
Spouse	Kathryn Davies ​ ​ (m. 1994; div. 2015)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford (BA) Christ Church, Oxford (DPhil)
Profession	Journalist
Website	Official website

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, PC (born Andreas Adonis; 22 February 1963)^[3] is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2009 to 2010, and as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission from 2015 to 2017. He was Chair of the European Movement, from March 2021 until December 2022^[4] having previously served as Vice-Chairman from 2019 to 2021. He is currently a columnist for The New European.^[5]

Adonis began his career as an academic at the University of Oxford, before becoming a journalist at the Financial Times and later The Observer.^[3][6][7] Adonis was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair to be an advisor at the Number 10 Policy Unit, specialising in constitutional and educational policy, in 1998. He was later promoted to become the Head of the Policy Unit from 2001 until being created a life peer in 2005, when he was appointed Minister of State for Education in HM Government.^[3][6] He remained in that role when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, before becoming Minister of State for Transport in 2008. In 2009, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Transport Secretary, a position he held until 2010.^[8]

Adonis has worked for a number of think tanks, is a board member of Policy Network and is the author or co-author of several books, including several studies of the British class system, the rise and fall of the Community Charge, and the Victorian House of Lords. He has also co-edited a collection of essays on Roy Jenkins. Like Jenkins, Adonis speaks with rhotacism. His latest book, Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill, is a biography of the Labour politician Ernest Bevin whom, alongside Tony Blair, Adonis regards as a source of inspiration for the modern Labour Party.

Adonis is a strong supporter and advocate of the European Union (EU) and a vocal opponent of Brexit. Following the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, he became a key campaigner against the result of the referendum on British departure from the EU, supporting the People's Vote.