Sir Bernard Ingham

Sir Bernard Ingham is a journalist and is best known as Margaret Thatcher's press secretary. He started his career as a journalist working for the Yorkshire Post and then moving to The Guardian.

In 1968 he was recruited as Mrs Barbara Castle's speechwriter at the Department of Employment and Productivity. Until 1978 he served successively as Director of Information in the Departments of Employment and Energy under Tony Benn. In 1978 he was promoted to the rank of Under Secretary to head a new energy conservation division in the Department of Energy. He held that post when the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, recruited him in October, 1979 as her Chief Press Secretary. He served in that capacity until Mrs Thatcher's resignation in November 1991.

Sir Bernard has his own communications company and holds consultancy appointments with British Nuclear Fuels plc and the British Nuclear Forum. He is a non executive director of McDonalds Restaurants (UK) Ltd and Hill Knowlton (UK) Ltd, the international public affairs company. He is much in demand as an After Dinner Speaker. He now writes a weekly column for the Daily Express and occasionally on media issues for The Times.