Fiona Millar (born 2 January 1958) is a British journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues. She is a former adviser to Cherie Blair. She contributes to The Guardian and the Local Schools Network website.

Early life

In 1961 she lived on Great Portland Street, near Broadcasting House.^[1] In 1963 her father wrote the book 'The Affluent Sheep', having researched around 500 families, that claimed that most housewives shopped with 'unwarranted complacency' about prices. Her mother took part in voluntary work for deprived children, and was party secretary of the Marylebone Labour group, later working at the Portman Early Childhood Centre in the north-west of Marylebone.^[2]

In 1975 her father Bob was the press officer of the Marylebone Labour group, when Anne Weyman was the chairman; later Anne would be chief executive from 1996-2008 of the Family Planning Association, and recently the vice-chair of Britain for Europe.^[3] Secretary of the Marylebone Labour group was Lady Lucan (originally Kaitlin Dawson 1900-1985) who was the mother of the notorious Lord Lucan, when Fiona's father became vice-chair, of the group, in 1976, when Fiona was 18.^[4] But the Labour group were never in control, until recently in 2022, of Westminster council.

She grew up in St John's Wood, attending two primary schools there, including Barrow Hill, with her brother.

Millar attended Camden School for Girls. She studied economics and economic history at University College London and joined the Mirror Group's graduate training scheme in 1980.

In 1981 her brother lived on Abbey Road, London.^[5] In May 1982 her brother stood for Little Venice (ward) on Westminster council, but the Conservatives took all three seats, including one by Nick St Aubyn, later an MP from 1997-2001. Her brother was assistant secretary of the St Marylebone Labour party, when living in St John's Wood in the 1980s.^[6] Alongside her brother in the Labour group, in the 1990s, were Andrew Dismore and Karen Buck, the current Labour MP for Westminster North (her former local constituency for St John's Wood).^[7]

Career

Millar began in journalism as a trainee on the Mirror Group Graduate Training Scheme in the West Country, later moving to the Daily Express, where she worked as a news reporter and lobby correspondent and was a colleague of Peter Hitchens. She was a freelance journalist between 1988 and 1995, contributing to the Daily Express, the Sunday Mirror and The House magazine, Parliament's in-house publication. In 1993, she co-authored (with Glenys Kinnock) By Faith and Daring, Interviews with Remarkable Women to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Virago Press.

Millar worked in the office of the Leader of the Opposition from 1995 to 1997, as an adviser to Cherie Blair from 1995 to 2003, as a Special Adviser to the Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, as head of Cherie Blair's office, and Director of Events and Visits at Downing Street. Millar opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but was pressured to stay at Downing Street because of the risk of adverse publicity.^[8] She informed Blair of her definite intention to resign after the capture of Baghdad, on the day of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue.^[9] The resignation was publicly announced in August 2003.^[10]

In 2003 she started writing a monthly column for The Guardian about education, and in 2004 she presented a documentary film for Channel Four called The Best for My Child, examining how the quasi-market in schools was working in practice.

In 2005, along with Melissa Benn, she co-wrote a pamphlet "A Comprehensive Future: Quality and Equality for All Our Children", and is active in the campaign against the Trust Schools white paper, appearing alongside Labour Party figures Neil Kinnock and Estelle Morris at campaign meetings.^[11][12]

Between 2009 and 2013 Millar was chair of Comprehensive Future, an organisation that promotes the perceived advantages of comprehensive schools in the UK. Her children attend state schools in the Camden LEA. Between 2000 and 2010 she was Chair of Governors at Gospel Oak Primary School and from 2008 was Chair of Governors at William Ellis boys' comprehensive school and an associate governor of Parliament Hill School. Millar's articles have appeared regularly in the education supplement of The Guardian newspaper since 2003.

Between 2003 and 2010 she was chair of trustees of the Family and Parenting Institute, and now chairs the National Youth Arts Trust. She also chairs the Trustee Board of the Young Camden Foundation.

Millar received the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers in 2009, for her campaigning for good-quality local comprehensive schools as against academies.^[13] That same year she wrote The Secret World of the Working Mother, a book about finding a balance between working and being a mother.

In 2010, Millar helped form the Local Schools Network, a pro-state schools pressure group.

In 2018 she published The Best for My Child. Did the schools market deliver? to mark the 30th anniversary of the Education Reform Act 1988.

Personal life

Millar's brother is KC Gavin Millar. Her partner is Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications.^[8] They have two sons and a daughter, living in Gospel Oak. She is a patron of the National Association for Special Educational Needs and Humanists UK.^[14]

Books

• Millar, Kinnock (January 1995). By Faith and Daring: Interviews with Remarkable Women. Virago. ISBN 1853816329.
• Millar, Fiona (March 2009). The Secret World of the Working Mother. Vermilion. ISBN 9780091924232.
• Millar, Fiona (May 2018). The Best for My Child. Did the schools market deliver?. John Catt Educational. ISBN 9781911382645.

References

External links

• Grammar schools: right or wrong? (video clip)