Shaun Bailey

Shaun Bailey (born 1971 in North Kensington, London) is a British Afro-Caribbean youth worker and Conservative politician. He stood for the London constituency of Hammersmith as a Conservative at the 2010 general election, and is currently the Prime Minister's Special Adviser on Youth and Crime.

Early life

Bailey was born in North Kensington, London in 1971, where he and his younger brother were raised by his mother and extended family in the absence of his father, a lorry driver.^[1] The family are of Jamaican origin.^[2] From about 13 years of age he started to get to know his father, along with a second family his father had started, and became close to his stepsisters and stepbrother.^[3]

Bailey attended Henry Compton School in Fulham and left with five CSEs.^[1] When Bailey was 12 years old, his mother sent him to join the Army Cadet Force in White City.^[4] When Bailey was about 19, he became a Sergeant-Instructor and stayed in the Cadets for another 10 years in Askew.^[4] His time spent in the Cadets gave him an understanding of 'Britishness', and he felt much less separated from the world around him.

At about the age of 12 or 13, he started going to the Jubilee Sports Centre to take up gymnastics, which occupied much of his remaining spare time.^[3] After this, he became a devoted member of Childs Hill Gymnastics Display team, a well known and respected gymnastics club in London who travel all around the world. They went on to win many gymnastic competitions, both national and international. Shaun still visits the gymnasts when he can to offer his support. After leaving secondary school, Bailey attended Paddington College, where he achieved two A-levels and a BTEC.^[1]

Career before Politics

Bailey graduated with a 2.2 in computer-aided engineering from London South Bank University. Previously, he worked as a security guard at Wembley Stadium and the Trocadero to put himself through university. After witnessing the route to crime taken by many of his peers, Bailey became a drug-worker for The Blenheim Project, and later co-founded "My Generation", a charity devoted to addressing the social problems that affect struggling young people and their families, such as anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, crime, pregnancy, educational underachievement, and unemployment.^[5] Bailey was drafted in as Chairman of the Trustees at the Pepper Pot Day Centre(2007–2009), an organisation in West London that looks provides for the African and Caribbean elders and adults with special needs.

Shaun is currently the Chairman of the Panel of Judges of the Spirit of London Awards.

Political career

Bailey is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies,^[6] writing for the Centre and for various newspapers, including the Evening Standard,^[7] the Times,^[8] and the Independent.^[9] His main area of specialisation is youth crime, welfare and charity and he is a member of the Police Community Consultation Group and has worked closely with the Independent Police Complaints Authority.

On 29 March 2007 he was selected at an open primary to be the Conservative candidate for the new parliamentary seat of Hammersmith, a key marginal seat in West London.^[10] His campaign has focused on issues surrounding families and social responsibility.^[11] He narrowly failed to win the seat however, in conjunction with the Conservative Party's failure to win an overall majority in Parliament.

Since the 2010 Election, Bailey has gone on to take up a post in Downing Street, as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Youth and Crime,^[12] keeping him at the forefront of the Conservative Party despite failing to win Hammersmith. He focussed on issues surrounding Government youth, crime, welfare and community policy, and has been influential in shaping the agenda on these issues, particularly in the aftermath of the 2011 England Riots. But early in 2013, Bailey lost his job as a special adviser, alleging that he was pushed out of Downing Street by the Prime Minister’s “clique” of Old Etonians.^[13]

There is significant party support behind Bailey running for Parliament again in 2015. However, Bailey has been very critical of many of the Coalition's policy in particular police cuts, cuts to youth services and housing benefit cuts under the Coalition. In addition, Bailey was interviewed on the BBC's Newsnight programme in March 2011, where he was introduced as 'Ambassador for the Big Society'.^[14]

He has been called a possible future Home Secretary^[15] and Mayor of London.^[16]

Politics

Bailey has expressed concerns about liberalism, saying "The more liberal we have been, the more our communities have suffered".^[1] and "The key wickedness that the Government has perpetrated is the idea that government can pay for everything. If you continually give people things and ask for nothing back you rob them of their will. People have to be involved in their own redemption. There are people sitting at home now who don't work because it's not worth their while to do it under the benefits system. That's wrong."^[15]

Publications

• Centre for Policy Studies

References

External links

• Official website
• Twitter page
• Youtube Channel for Shaun Bailey
• Bailey's interview with Greg Hands MP
• Shaun Bailey articles in the Evening Standard
• Hammersmith Conservatives