Lord David Blunkett joins us for the Deafblind UK Conference 2024

We are delighted to welcome Lord David Blunkett to the Deafblind UK Conference 2024, where he will be talking about his role in championing accessibility and his own challenges with sight loss.

Click here to book your place for the Deafblind UK Conference 2024.

David Blunkett is a UK politician, who moved from being the leader of England’s fourth largest city (Sheffield) to become the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside in 1997.

Having served in the Shadow Cabinet under the Labour leadership of John Smith and Tony Blair, he joined the incoming government in 1997, and served for 8 years in Tony Blair’s Cabinet. He held the posts of Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

He was the Home Secretary in charge of the security service (MI5) at the time of the attack in the United States by Al Qaeda on the 11^th of September 2001, and worked with both the Homeland Security Tsar and justice departments, as well as key institutions within the European Union. He held the presidency of the Council of Social Affairs in Europe twice and worked closely with the then- Interior Minister of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, who later became President.

After leaving government, David worked with a number of key charities, as well as advising on issues as diverse as cyber security, education and skills.

As a former board member of the National Citizens Service Trust, he has had a long-standing interest in citizenship education and the wellbeing of young people.

Having stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2015 general election, David was awarded a seat in the Upper House in the dissolution Honours list the same year, taking the title of Lord Blunkett, of Brightside and Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield.  He also, in that year, took up a post as Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield Department of Politics and became Chair of the board of the University of Law (formerly the College of Law) based in London.

More recently, David led on the production of a major report on the future of education and skills for the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer. He has a number of advisory posts including being an adviser on public policy and internal understanding of government and policy development to DLA Piper LLP; and to Heathrow Ltd in respect of their Sustainable Economic Growth Taskforce.

David, who has been blind since birth, experienced hardship when, at the age of twelve, he lost his father in a work accident.

Educated at evening class (and on day release from work) he entered the University of Sheffield as a mature student graduating in 1972. He went on to become a tutor in post-16 education, holding a post-graduate teaching certificate.

Married, with four sons (one of whom is currently at University in the US) and three stepdaughters, he enjoys the countryside, reading and good food, and is an avid supporter of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.

We look forward to hearing more from David at the Deafblind UK Conference on October 3rd, to join the conversation and book your place click here.