Henry Newman

Henry Newman is a British political adviser. He has served as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, since July 2025. Previously he has served as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Francis Maude. He also served as a councillor on Camden London Borough Council.

Early life Newman's grandmothers were an Istanbul-born Greek, and a German Jew who fled the Nazis, before training as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital. He later studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics.

Career Newman taught politics and history at various universities, including politics at SOAS University of London, He worked on Government efficiency and prison reform Newman was a special adviser to Gove, and was reported to have been a protégé of Gove. Newman worked on the Vote Leave campaign in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum. Under Prime Minister Theresa May, he joined

Following the election of Johnson as Prime Minister, Newman worked for Gove at the Cabinet Office. of leaking Government plans for a second COVID-19 lockdown to newspapers. In April 2021, Dominic Cummings alleged he had been told by the cabinet secretary that Newman was likely to have been the leaker in October 2020,

On 7 February 2022, after a "mutually agreed decision" with Johnson, he left his role at 10 Downing Street to become an adviser to Gove at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Johnson had been urged to move Newman away from his role over accusations—strongly denied by Number 10—that Carrie was influencing Johnson's appointments and Government policy. In 2024, he applied to be the Conservative candidate in Bexhill and Battle to succeed Huw Merriman in the 2024 general election, but was defeated by Crewe and Nantwich MP Kieran Mullan. He launched a Substack blog after the general election, which the Conservatives lost, called The Whitehall Project. In November 2024, Newman was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party and Opposition. In July 2025, he was promoted to Chief of Staff.

Personal life Newman's partner is academic Guglielmo Verdirame, Baron Verdirame. The couple live in Hampstead, London.