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Tom Harwood

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Tom Harwood
Harwood in 2021
Born
Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood

(1996-08-26) 26 August 1996 (age 28)
Cambridge, England
Alma materSt Mary's College, Durham University (BA)
Occupation(s)Journalist, political commentator
Websitetomharwood.uk

Thomas Hedley Fairfax Harwood (born 26 August 1996) is a British journalist, political commentator and television show host. He became the deputy political editor of GB News in March 2023. Harwood previously worked as a reporter for the right-wing political news website Guido Fawkes between 2018 and 2021, and was a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, writing online columns from 2019 to 2021.

Early life and education

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Harwood was born on 26 August 1996.[1][2] He grew up in Cambridge, England.[3] Harwood attended The Perse School, a private school in the city.[4]

He studied politics at Durham University, where he was elected as president of its debating society, the Durham Union.[5][6] Harwood ran a satirical campaign to become a National Union of Students (NUS) delegate, criticising the organisation with viral videos and satirical pledges such as using its funds to build a Death Star, and defeating the terrorist group ISIS with a boycott.[5][7] He was elected in what The Times newspaper described as "a landslide victory" that gained national attention in December 2016.[8] After his election, he appeared on the BBC's Daily Politics show.[9]

Harwood later ran for the presidency of the NUS in 2017 with a similar campaign and was endorsed by the University of Manchester Students' Union.[10][11] The union was the only one to hold a primary election in which students could directly vote for their candidate.[12] Their vote mandated their delegates to vote for him in the NUS presidential election.[11] He finished a distant third in the election with 35 votes out of the 1,200 NUS delegates.[4] In the following year, Harwood appeared on the BBC's Daily Politics show again due to another satirical campaign to lower the voting age to 12.[13]

Career

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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.[7][14][15] In 2017, he worked for the American libertarian organisation Students for Liberty.[16] 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.[17] Harwood received 336 votes, and finished in 6th place.[18] Harwood became a reporter for the right-wing political news website Guido Fawkes in July 2018.[7][19]

Harwood was listed in talk radio station LBC's list of top 100 most influential Conservatives of 2019.[20] Harwood was briefly a member of Turning Point UK, an offshoot of the US right-wing student organisation Turning Point USA,[21][22] distancing himself from the group days after it launched, saying that he did not realise its political positions would be aligned with those of the US organisation, which he opposes.[23][24] He contributed opinion pieces to The Telegraph between 2019 and 2021.[25] In 2019, at the age of 22, he became the youngest panellist to appear on a regular edition of the topical debate programme BBC Question Time.[26][27]

In 2021, Harwood joined GB News as its political correspondent.[28] In August 2021 it was announced that he would host a new programme on the channel, The Briefing: AM with Tom Harwood.[29] Harwood was promoted to deputy political editor of GB News in March 2023.[30]

References

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  1. ^ Harwood, Tom [@tomhfh] (7 May 2020). "lots of papers erroneously reporting Nadia Whittome is 24. As far as I can make out she was born in August 1996, making her 23" (Tweet). Retrieved 14 February 2022 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Harwood, Tom [@tomhfh] (7 May 2020). "yup, 29 August 1996. Three days younger than me" (Tweet). Retrieved 14 February 2022 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ "GB News announces signings to political reporting team". Evening Express. Aberdeen. Press Association. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b Gimson, Andrew (15 December 2017). "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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ "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.
  7. ^ a b c 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ "NUS 'does not represent students any more'". BBC News. 19 December 2016. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ a b Sterne, Jennifer (25 April 2017). "University of Manchester students back Tom Harwood for NUS President". University of Manchester Students' Union (Press release). Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "Vote for 12 year-olds: Harwood and Preston on child suffrage". BBC News. 26 February 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Yorke, Harry; Mintz, Luke; Peters, Charlie (24 April 2017). "Student Tory groups swell in backlash at Left-wing activists". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Gutteridge, Matt; Clynch, Harry; Mochar, Anna (3 May 2018). "Local elections 2018 – as it happened". Varsity. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  18. ^ "Election results for East Chesterton". Cambridge City Council. 3 May 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Live with Littlewood: Kate Andrews, Sam Bowman, Tom Harwood and more". Institute of Economic Affairs. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  20. ^ "The Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2019". LBC. 30 September 2019. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ Harwood, Tom [@tomhfh] (10 March 2021). "Not evolved - consistent since 2016 as the tweet you quote shows! I was a bit foolish to not realise that the turning point UK stuff would be aligned to the US stuff which I oppose. Left the week it launched, only appeared in one video" (Tweet). Retrieved 14 February 2022 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ "Tom Harwood". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  26. ^ Finnis, Alex; Sherwin, Adam; Butterworth, Benjamin (5 May 2021). "GB News presenters: Full list of hosts signed up to Andrew Neil's TV channel so far". i. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  27. ^ "Tom Harwood on Question Time: Brexit Party anthem protest 'dignified'". BBC News. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  28. ^ Tobitt, Charlotte (18 February 2021). "GB News briefing: Channel will be 'free, fair and impartial' says news chief John McAndrew as political editor named". Press Gazette. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  29. ^ Duffy, Elle (10 August 2021). "GB News to launch four political programmes". The Herald. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  30. ^ @tomhfh (2 March 2023). "Pleased to say I've been appointed Deputy Political Editor of @GBNews" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 March 2023 – via Twitter.
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