Eleanor Shawcross, Baroness Wolfson of Aspley Guise (born 1983), is a British political advisor, who previously served as the Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.[1]
The daughter of Sir William Shawcross, Shawcross has worked for Boston Consulting Group, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford, as well as several political and governmental roles.[2][3]
Shawcross worked on Boris Johnson's mayoral campaign,[4] and became a member of the Council of Economic Advisers to the then-shadow Chancellor George Osborne from 2008, and served for 6 years as his deputy chief of staff when Osborne became Chancellor of the Exchequer.[5] After 2016, she served as chief of staff at the Department for Work and Pensions and was subsequently made a non-executive director for 2020–2022.[3]
Shawcross advised Rishi Sunak during his time as Chancellor, and donated £20,000 to his leadership campaign.[6] Sunak appointed her the director of the Number 10 Policy Unit when he became prime minister in October 2022,[7][8] leading to the New Statesman naming her as the twelfth most powerful right-wing figure in the UK in 2023.[9]
In 2012, Shawcross married Simon Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, who is the son of David Wolfson, respectively the current and former chairmen of Next, and both Conservative life peers.[10][11] They have two sons and a daughter together.[12][13]