Andrew Gilligan

Gilligan beside the River Thames outside London City Hall

Andrew Paul Gilligan (born 22 November 1968) is a British policy adviser and ex-journalist. He served as a special adviser to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak,[1] having previously worked as a transport adviser to Boris Johnson both as Mayor of London and as Prime Minister.

Until July 2019, Gilligan was senior correspondent of The Sunday Times and had also served as head of the Capital City Foundation at Policy Exchange.[2] Between 2013 and 2016 he also worked as the Mayor's cycling commissioner for London, and in 2020 he was an appointee of Central Government to TfL's Board.[2][3][4] He is best known for a 2003 report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme in which he described a British government briefing paper on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (the September Dossier) as having been "transformed in the week before it was published to make it sexier". This change became widely known, in the words of newspaper headlines about the story, as being "sexed up".[3]

He was awarded Journalist of the Year in 2008 for his investigative reports on Ken Livingstone[5] and was shortlisted for the award again in 2015 for investigations which helped cause the downfall of politician Lutfur Rahman.[4] He has also been a nominee for the Paul Foot Award,[6] the Orwell Prize,[7] the British Journalism Awards[8] and Foreign Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.[9][10]

  1. ^ "UK Parliament - Written questions, answers and statements". 26 February 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b "About the Capital City Foundation". Archived from the original on 8 January 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Full transcript of Andrew Gilligan's 'sexed up' broadcast". The Guardian. 9 July 2003. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b "2015 Press Awards shortlist". Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  5. ^ Brook, Stephen (19 June 2009). "Andrew Gilligan to join the Telegraph". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  6. ^ "The Paul Foot Award | Private Eye Online". www.private-eye.co.uk.
  7. ^ "Andrew Gilligan". The Orwell Foundation. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  8. ^ "'Humbling and inspiring': Full list of finalists for the British Journalism Awards 2015 revealed". Press Gazette. 3 November 2015.
  9. ^ O'Carroll, Lisa (20 March 2012). "Press Awards 2012 as they happened". The Guardian.
  10. ^ "Andrew Gilligan on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2 June 2018.