Treasury speechwriter moves across to DfID team

Matt Cartmell 05-Jun-08

The Department for International Development (DfID) has appointed a speechwriter from The Treasury.

Tim Stern joins Pete Lewis on the speechwriting team at the department. He was previously a policy and communications strategy adviser in the international poverty reduction team at the Treasury.

DFID director of comms Paul Mylrea said: 'Tim brings a lot of experience in speechwriting, communication and development.'

Mylrea said key issues coming up for DfID are global food prices, the humanitarian issues of Burma and China and the ongoing drive to reduce global poverty.

DfID, which was set up in 1997 after Labour came to power, now has an annual budget of £5.3bn. By 2010 this will have risen to £7.9bn. The department has a total staff of 2,446.

The department has recently gone from having two ministers to four. Lewis will continue to be speechwriter for secretary of state Douglas Alexander, while Stern will handle speechwriting for ministers Gillian Merron, Gareth Thomas and Shahid Malik.

Stern has also worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Douglas Alexander hit the news this week when he refused to shake hands with Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe at a global food summit in Rome.

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