Women With Balls: Deborah Mattinson

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Deborah Mattinson joined the House of Lords as a Labour peer in February. Her involvement in politics began when she worked alongside Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould to create Labour’s Shadow Communications Agency for Neil Kinnock. In 1992 she co-founded Opinion Leader Research, and she went on to advise Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 election and later became Gordon Brown’s chief pollster. In 2021 she was appointed Director of Strategy for Keir Starmer, a position she held until stepping down following last year’s landslide victory.

On the podcast, Deborah tells Katy Balls about growing up as a Labour supporter with a father active in local Tory politics, the work hard/play hard culture of advertising in the 1980s and how to decipher what voters really think during focus groups. They also talk about the differences between the 1987, ‘92, and ‘97 campaigns, the ‘Hero voters’ that were key to Labour’s electoral success in 2024 and how Labour can best tackle the threat from Reform today. With experience working with Labour spanning four decades, they touch on the Labour giants she worked with, including Alf (now Lord) Dubs, Peter (now Ambassador – also Lord) Mandelson and, more recently, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
0:06.2	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online, along with a free £20 £10,000 or waitress voucher.
0:15.0	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:21.5	Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I Katie Balls, speak to today's Trailblazers.
0:26.4	My guest today has worked as a political consultant, business leader, entrepreneur and charity
0:30.4	trustee.
0:31.2	Her involvement in political consultancy dates back to 1987 when she worked alongside Peter
0:36.5	Madison and Philip Gould to create Labour's shadow communications agency for Neil Kinnock.
0:42.1	In 1992, she co-founded opinion leader of research, now one of the UK's top research and engagement consultancies.
0:49.0	She later advised Tony Blair and the run-up to the 1997 general election and became the chief pollster for Gordon Brown
0:54.7	during his tenure as Chancellor of Dixchequer and later as Prime Minister.
0:59.2	In 2021, she was appointed director of strategy for Kirstama and was instrumental in securing
1:04.0	Labour's victory last year. In February, she took up a seat in the House of Lords
1:08.3	having been nominated for a life period. My guest today is Deborah Mattson.
1:18.6	Deborah, welcome to the podcast.
1:21.2	Thank you.
1:21.8	We begin with the same question, which is, was yours a happy childhood?
1:25.9	You were born in Darlington County Durham. Yes, it was a very happy childhood? You were born in Darlington County Durham.
1:28.1	Yes, it was a very happy childhood. I was born in Darlington and lived there until I was about
1:33.3	eight. And then we moved around a lot. My dad worked in financial services initially for
1:39.6	Barclays Bank. And the way you got promotion in those days was to move and we moved every two years two or
1:46.2	three years in my childhood so I went to kind of four primary schools in as many years and then in
	...

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