Philippa Stroud (born 1965)[1] is a co-founder and former Executive Director of the think tank the Centre for Social Justice. She is a member of the Conservative Party and in 2009 The Daily Telegraph named her as the 82nd most influential right-winger, ahead of the last Conservative leader Michael Howard.[2]
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Stroud spent seventeen years in poverty-fighting projects and published a book on social injustice. In 1987-89 Philippa worked in Hong Kong and Macau amongst the addict community. From 1989-96 Philippa pioneered a four-stage residential support project in Bedford enabling homeless people to move off the streets and to become contributing members of the community. From 2001-2003 Philippa developed a project to care for addicts, the homeless and those in debt in Birmingham.[3]
In 2003, Stroud co-founded the Centre for Social Justice. She has twice been a Conservative candidate in a general election: she came third in Birmingham Ladywood in 2005;[4] and on 6 May 2010, as candidate for Sutton and Cheam, she came second to incumbent Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow.[5]
After the election, she was appointed as a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith[6]
During the 2010 election campaign, it was claimed by The Observer, but denied by Stroud, that in 1989, having returned from Hong Kong, she had founded the Kings Arms Trust[7] in Bedford, that provided religiously-based social services to alcoholics and drug addicts. Twenty-one years later, the church attracted controversy when an article in The Observer of 2 May 2010 alleged they had tried to "cure" homosexuals and transgender individuals by driving out their 'demons' in the name of God.[8] Immediately after the allegations of the article, Stroud responded in a statement saying that it was "categorically untrue that I believe homosexuality to be an 'illness'".[9] David Cameron defended Stroud stating that "She believes in gay equality" and had made "a very clear statement to say she was completely misreported".[10]
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