Alexander John Cameron Deane (born 24 June 1979) is a British writer, political commentator and consultant. He is a regular commentator on

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

and

GB News GB News is a British free-to-air, editorial, opinion-orientated television and radio news channel. The channel is available on Freeview (UK), Freeview, Freesat, Sky UK, Sky, YouView, Virgin Media and via the internet on Samsung TV Plus, LG web ...

, and formerly on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Dateline London ''Dateline London'' is a weekly BBC News discussion group, discussion programme. A panel discussion, panel of four leading journalists, lecturers, and foreign correspondents discussed top news stories from an international perspective. The last e ...

''. Deane was the defeated Conservative

parliamentary candidate In British politics, a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) is a candidate selected by political parties to contest under individual Westminster constituencies in advance of a general election. The term originally came into use because of t ...

for

Finchley and Golders Green Finchley and Golders Green is a constituency created in 1997. It is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Sarah Sackman of the Labour Party. Boundaries The constituency covers Finchley, Golders Green, Childs Hill, Te ...

in the

2024 general election This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2024 United Nations Security Council election * 2024 national electoral calendar * 2024 local electo ...

Education

The son of Paul Deane and Jacqueline ''née'' Osborne, he was educated at

County Upper School Bury St Edmunds County High School, previously Bury St Edmunds County Upper School, is a 13 to 19 co-educational comprehensive part of the Bury St Edmunds All-Through Trust, comprising County High School, Horringer Court School, Westley School ...

, a state comprehensive school in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, before going to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, where he read English Literature, graduating in 2000. He then studied at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, as a Rotary Scholar and graduated with an MA in International Relations in 2002. During his time training to be a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

he won the 2004

World Universities Debating Championship The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest international debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events. WUDC is held in the British Parliamentary format (involving four teams of t ...

Career

Deane was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 2005. He served as Chief of Staff to

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

and Tim Collins during their respective periods as

Shadow Secretary of State for Education The shadow secretary of state for education, also called the shadow education secretary, is an office in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom), Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet responsible for Official Opposition (United King ...

. He served as the founding director of

Big Brother Watch Big Brother Watch is a non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was founded by Ma ...

from 2009 to 2011. In 2011 Deane was elected as

Commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

(the City equivalent of a

Councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

) to the

Court of Common Council The Court of Common Council is the primary decision-making body of the City of London Corporation. It meets nine times per year. Most of its work is carried out by committees. City of London Corporation elections , Elections are held at least eve ...

for the ward of

Farringdon Without __NOTOC__ Farringdon Without is the most westerly Wards of the City of London, ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix ''Without'' reflects its origin as lying beyond the London Wall, City's former defensive walls. It was first establis ...

and was reelected at the

2013 City of London Corporation election The 2013 City of London Corporation election took place on 21 March 2013 to elect members of the Court of Common Council in the City of London Corporation, England. These elections take place every four years. As in the previous election, the ...

, serving until the

2017 City of London Corporation election The 2017 City of London Corporation election took place on 23 March 2017 to elect members of the Court of Common Council in the City of London Corporation. The election was the first time apart from a 2014 by-election that partisan candidates ...

. A liveryman of the Curriers' Company, he is a current member of

The Freedom Association The Freedom Association (TFA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as "a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group", which has links to the Conservative Party and UK Independence Party (UKIP). TFA was founded ...

's management committee. His main role is Senior Managing Director, Head of UK Public Affairs for

FTI Consulting FTI Consulting (earlier Forensics Technologies International) is a business consultancy firm founded in 1982 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. The company specializes in corporate finance and restructuring, economic consultin ...

having joined the company in 2014. He often appears in the media as a political commentator, is a Sky News regular and a BBC Dateline London panelist. He was the executive director of the eurosceptic Grassroots Out campaign Commentating on allegations that

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

groped Charlotte Edwardes, Deane quoted

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tr ...

who said: "How do I know my advances are unwanted until I've made them?". In 2018 he was shortlisted to be prospective Parliamentary candidate for the

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

seat, but lost to Tom Hunt. Deane is the author of ''Lessons From History'' and ''More Lessons from History Uncovering the colourful characters of the past''.

References

External links

Alexander John Cameron Deane, Deputy
City of London Council
Alex Deane
Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, Alex 1979 births Living people People from Bury St Edmunds Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Griffith University alumni Members of the Middle Temple Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates