Topic: Andrew Adonis

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (born Andreas Adonis, 22 February 1963) is a British Labour Party politician, who was Secretary of State for Transport between 2009-2010. He was first appointed to the government following the 2005 general election, as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He previously served as an education and constitution policy advisor on the Number 10 Policy Unit from 1998 to 2005, heading it from 2001 to 2003. Before joining the government, Adonis was an academic at the University of Oxford, then a journalist at the Financial Times and The Observer.

Adonis is the son of an immigrant Greek Cypriot father Nicos, a commis waiter, and an English mother. His mother left the family when he was three and has had no communication with him since. Shortly thereafter, he was placed in care and lived in a council children's home until the age of 11, when Adonis was awarded a local education authority grant to attend Kingham Hill School.

After Kingham Hill, Adonis went to nearby Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a first class BA in modern history. At Christ Church he subsequently completed a D.Phil on the British aristocracy of the late 19th century before being appointed to a fellowship at Nuffield College. From 1991 to 1996 he was a public policy correspondent, industry correspondent and public policy editor at the Financial Times. In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist and editor.