The Lord Knight of Weymouth | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Tony McNulty | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Minister for the South West | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ben Bradshaw | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for Schools and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 May 2006 – 5 June 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister |
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jacqui Smith | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Vernon Coaker | ||||||||||||||||||
| Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 6 May 2005 – 5 May 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Alun Michael | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Barry Gardiner | ||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1965-03-06)6 March 1965 (age 60) Bexley, England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour and Co-operative | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge | ||||||||||||||||||
James Philip Knight, Baron Knight of Weymouth,PC, FRSA[1] (born 6 March 1965) is a British politician who served asMinister for the South West andMinister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2009 to 2010. A member of theLabour Party andCo-operative Party, he wasMember of Parliament (MP) forSouth Dorset from2001 to2010.
After losing his seat toRichard Drax of theConservative Party, it was announced Knight would be made alife peer in the2010 Dissolution Honours. He is now chief education and external officer atTES Global Ltd, and a visiting professor at theLondon Knowledge Lab of theInstitute of Education in London.
Knight was educated atEltham College, an independent school inMottingham in south east London, followed byFitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he studied geography andsocial & political sciences from 1984–87, gaining aBA Hons.
Knight was manager of Central Studio, the arts centre ofQueen Mary's College, Basingstoke, from 1988–90.[2] From 1990–91, he was director of West Wiltshire Arts Centre Ltd, then director of Dentons Directories Ltd inWestbury from 1991–2001.[3]
Knight first stood for Parliament at the1997 general election as theLabour Party candidate forSouth Dorset, but narrowly lost by just 77 votes.[4] He was, however, elected on the same day toMendip District Council, on which he served until 2001; including as Labour group leader.[5]
At the2001 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for South Dorset by 153 votes in the only Labour gain from theConservatives that year.[6] At the2005 general election, Knight increased his majority to 1,812 votes, but with a small decrease in his share of the vote.[7] At the2010 general election, Knight lost his seat toConservativeRichard Drax by 7,443 votes after an 11.4% drop in his share of the vote.[8]
Knight was the campaign co-ordinator forEd Balls's unsuccessful Labour Party leadership campaign in 2010.[9]
Knight wasParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity in theDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2005–06. He then moved to becomeMinister of State for Schools in theDepartment for Education and Skills. On 28 June 2007, whenGordon Brown disbanded the department, Knight moved to the newly createdDepartment for Children, Schools and Families, as the Minister for Schools and Learners.[5] In October 2008 following the reshuffle, Knight became a member of thePrivy Council.[10]
In 2009, when MPs expenses were revealed following a leak in the Daily Telegraph,[11] Knight was ranked 171 out of 645 in the MPs' expenses list, claiming £155,987 in 2007/2008, compared with £137,970 in 2006/2007, of which £94,135 was for staff, £9,746 was for a communications allowance and £4,993 was for personal living expenses.[12]
In his firstParliament, Jim Knight generally voted in line with party policy, including all major votes such as those on theIraq war andtop-up fees.[13]
Jim Knight held the following positions:
Knight was created alife peer on 23 June 2010, taking the title Baron Knight of Weymouth, ofWeymouth in the County of Dorset.[14][15]
In April 2014 he stepped down from the Labour front bench in the House of Lords to take up a full-time role as managing director, online learning at TES Global Ltd, building an online professional development and training service for teachers. Knight was subsequently appointed chief education and external officer at TES Global.
In 2011, Knight was appointed as chair of digital and social inclusion charity Tinder Foundation (nowGood Things Foundation). He stood down as chair in 2016 but remains a patron of the Technology, Pedagogy and Education professional association. He is now Chair Emeritus of the Digital Poverty Alliance and co-owner of XRapid, an app that diagnoses malaria and is a board member of Apps for Good. He is also the deputy chair of the Nominet Trust,[citation needed] and an honorary associate of theNational Secular Society.[16]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSouth Dorset 2001–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Schools and Learners 2006–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform 2009–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for the South West 2009–2010 | Position abolished |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Knight of Weymouth | Followed by |
_(St_Edwards_Crown).svg)
