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Tom Harwood

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Tom Harwood
File:Tom Harwood CPC2019.jpg
Tom Harwood speaking in 2019

Born
Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood

(1996-08-26) 26 August 1996 (age 28)
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationThe Perse School
Alma materSt Mary's College, Durham (BA)
Occupation(s)Journalist, activist, and political commentator.
WebsiteOfficial website

Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood (born 26 August 1996) is a British journalist, activist, and political commentator. He is the senior reporter for the conservative political news website Guido Fawkes.[1] He has written for The Daily Telegraph since 2019.

Early life and education

Harwood was born on 26 August 1996[2][3] in Cambridge, England.[4] His father is a partner at a property consultancy, and his mother is a primary school teacher. He has a sister.[5][6] Harwood attended The Perse School, an independent school in Cambridge.[7] Whilst at school he was highly commended for "impassioned speeches" at the Model United Nations,[8] as well as success at a mock trial competition in Cambridge Crown Court.[7] He played Romeo in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet.[9]

He studied politics at St Mary's College, Durham where he was also the president of the Durham Union Society.[10][11]

Harwood ran a successful satirical campaign to become a National Union of Students (NUS) delegate, criticising the organisation with viral videos and satirical pledges such as using NUS funds to build a fully functional Death Star, and defeating the terrorist group ISIS with an NUS boycott.[10][12] He was elected in a landslide victory that gained national attention in December 2016.[13] After his election, he appeared on the BBC's Daily Politics show.[14]

He later ran for the presidency of the NUS in 2017 with a similar campaign and was endorsed by the University of Manchester Students' Union.[15][16] The union was the only one to hold a primary election in which students could vote for their candidate.[17] Their vote mandated their delegates to vote for him in the NUS presidential election.[16] He finished a distant third in the election, with 35 votes out of the 1,200 NUS delegates.[18] In the following year, Harwood ran another satirical campaign to lower the voting age to twelve.[19]

Career

While at university, Harwood also became the national chair of pro-Brexit campaign group Students for Britain, an arm of the official Brexit campaign organisation Vote Leave.[20][21] In 2017, he worked for the American libertarian organisation Students for Liberty.[22] In May 2018, he was a Conservative Party candidate for the East Chesterton ward in the 2018 Cambridge City Council election. In the election, the two Labour candidates were elected.[23] Harwood received 336 votes, and finished in 6th place.[24] Harwood became a reporter for the conservative political news website Guido Fawkes in July 2018.[25]

He was listed in talk radio station LBC's list of top 100 most influential Conservatives of 2019.[26] Harwood was briefly a member of Turning Point UK, an offshoot of the US right-wing student organisation Turning Point USA,[27][28] distancing himself from the group days after it launched.[why?][29] He has written articles for the newspaper The Daily Telegraph since May 2019.[30] Harwood has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning Britain, Newsnight, BBC Breakfast and Question Time.[31]

In 2020, he was listed in the Tatler "New Power Networkers" list.[32]

Views

Harwood had advocated an uncompromising Brexit negotiating stance, favouring a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU whilst stating that a no deal outcome with the European Union offers opportunities to the UK.[33] He believes in a "deregulated, low tax, high wage UK"[34] and has expressed support for "liberal democracy".[35] He has opposed reducing the voting age to 16, arguing "responsibilities and rights" should go together.[36] Harwood has supported the Black Lives Matter movement, arguing "it is wrong to depict the broader movement as simply another offshoot of Momentum".[37] He has also opposed the proliferation of quangos.[38]

References

  1. ^ "About". Guido Fawkes. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  2. ^ Harwood, Tom [@tomhfh] (26 August 2019). "In which I am reminded I share a birthday with Macaulay Culkin. The esteemed 26th August crew also includes Michael Gove, Mother Theresa, and the eruption of Krakatoa" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ "Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood". Companies House. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  4. ^ "England & Wales Births 1837–2006". Findmypast. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Oliver Harwood". RH & RW Clutton. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  6. ^ @tomhfh (30 December 2017). "I should never have let my sister in on the spoons secret" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ^ a b "Pupils win mock trial competition". The Perse School. 3 July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Perse students' success at their first Model United Nations conference". The Perse. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  9. ^ Barker, Beth (23 April 2014). "Romeo and Juliet – a review". The Perse School. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  10. ^ a b Gibbons, Amy (6 December 2016). "Durham student promises to 'defeat Isis' and build a 217ft statue of the NUS president". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  11. ^ "The Durham Union Michaelmas 2018" (PDF). Durham Union Society. 2018. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  12. ^ Mayhew, Freddie (26 July 2018). "Guido Fawkes hires young Vote Leave talent and looks to boost video output on political blog site". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  13. ^ Burgess, Kaya (17 December 2016). "Manifesto of mockery wins student election". The Times. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  14. ^ "NUS 'does not represent students any more'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  15. ^ Diver, Tony (13 March 2017). "NUS Presidential candidate claims the far left have hijacked the student organisation". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  16. ^ a b Sterne, Jennifer (25 April 2017). "University of Manchester students back Tom Harwood for NUS President". University of Manchester Students' Union. Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  17. ^ Pells, Rachael (25 April 2017). "Who is challenging the controversial NUS President Malia Bouattia? A look at the 2017 candidates". The Independent. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  18. ^ Gimson, Andrew. "Sending up the Left is not enough. But it's certainly a start – and Tom Harwood is doing it effectively". ConservativeHome. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Vote for 12 year-olds: Harwood and Preston on child suffrage". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  20. ^ Smith, Dominic (10 March 2016). "In or out? Students use condoms to contemplate Brexit". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  21. ^ Yorke, Harry (24 April 2017). "Student Tory groups swell in backlash at Left-wing activists". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  22. ^ Harwood, Tom (25 July 2017). "The UK's dangerous attempt at internet censorship". Students for Liberty. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  23. ^ Gutteridge, Matt; Clynch, Harry; Mochar, Anna (3 May 2018). "Local elections 2018 – as it happened". Varsity. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  24. ^ "Election results for East Chesterton". Cambridge City Council. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  25. ^ Mayhew, Freddie (26 July 2018). "Guido Fawkes hires young Vote Leave talent and looks to boost video output on political blog site". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  26. ^ "The Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2019". LBC. 30 September 2019. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  27. ^ Brown, David (6 February 2019). "Right-wing student leader Charlie Kirk will tour UK universities". The Times. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.(subscription required)
  28. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (4 February 2019). "Turning Point UK: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Tory MPs support new branch of 'sinister' right-wing US group". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  29. ^ Spence, Alex; Di Stefano, Mark (8 February 2019). "Days After Its Disastrous British Launch, Turning Point Has Already Lost One Of Its Star Recruits". Buzzfeed. Archived from the original on 12 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  30. ^ "Tom Harwood". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  31. ^ "This House Believes Western Military Intervention Has Done More Harm Than Good". Cambridge Union. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  32. ^ Bickerstaff, Isaac (3 February 2020). "Meet the new power networkers". Tatler. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
  33. ^ Harwood, Tom. "The intransigent EU will quickly regret killing this final chance for a Brexit deal". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  34. ^ Harwood, Tom (9 October 2019). "The intransigent EU will quickly regret killing this final chance for a Brexit deal". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  35. ^ Harwood, Tom (19 March 2020). "We cannot let these authoritarian coronavirus measures become the new normal". Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  36. ^ "Vote for 12 year-olds: Harwood and Preston on child suffrage". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  37. ^ Harwood, Tom (12 June 2020). "Real issues are being ignored in this farcical culture war". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  38. ^ Harwood, Tom (22 May 2020). "Covid proves we urgently need a new quango bonfire, starting with Public Health England". Telegraph. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
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