James Schneider

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James Schneider
Born
James Gerald Hutton Schneider

(1987-06-17) 17 June 1987 (age 34)
London
NationalityBritish
EducationDragon School, Oxford
Winchester College, Hampshire
(independent boarding school)
St Paul's School, London
Alma materTrinity College, Oxford
OccupationFmr. Press Officer, Momentum
Fmr. Director of Strategic Communications, Office of the Leader of the Labour Party
OrganizationMomentum
Known forPublicist for Momentum
Adviser for the Labour Party
Political partyLabour Party
Parent(s)Brian Schneider
Tessa Lang
FamilyTim Schneider (brother)

James Gerald Hutton Schneider (born 17 June 1987),[1] is the former Press Officer for the left wing grassroots movement Momentum. In October 2016 he was appointed as a PR advisor to the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, taking the role of Director of Strategic Communications.[2][3]

Early life[]

Schneider was born to Jewish parents in London.[4] His father, Brian Schneider, was a financier and CEO of a Soho-based property company, OEM plc, and was accused of the theft of £5 million from the company.[5] He died in 2004 at the age of 48, when James was a teenager. James' mother, Tessa Lang, is a property developer.

Schneider, together with his brother, Tim, was brought up in Primrose Hill in London, with a second family home in Glen Tanar, near Balmoral Castle.[6]

Education[]

Winchester College, the boys' independent boarding school attended by Schneider

Schneider was educated at the Dragon School, an independent preparatory school in Oxford, and from the years 2000 ('Common Time') to 2005, at Winchester College,[1] a boarding independent school for boys in the cathedral city of Winchester, in Hampshire, where he boarded at House F (Hawkins').[1] He transferred to the independent St Paul's School in Barnes, London, for the sixth form.[7] He later attended Trinity College at the University of Oxford, to study Theology.

While at Oxford, Schneider was president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats.[8]

Career[]

Schneider joined Think Africa Press in 2010, a role he held until he became the senior correspondent at New African in 2014. He has described his work at Think Africa Press as formative, in which he began to look at local issues using ideas that were critical of capitalism and imperialism.[9] Schneider joined the Labour Party in May 2015 after the defeat of Ed Miliband and Labour in the 2015 general election.[10] He was a key figure within the left-wing grassroots movement Momentum, which was formed in October 2015 as a support group for Jeremy Corbyn, who had been elected Labour leader the previous month.[11] The group also played a significant role in the 2016 campaign to reelect Corbyn after a leadership challenge. Following their success in this campaign, Schneider was appointed as Director of Strategic Communications for the office of the Leader of the Opposition - Corbyn - in October 2016.[12][13]

Schneider has written numerous articles for the New Statesman magazine[14] on topics concerning the Labour Party. He states that he has read Marxist sociologist Ralph Miliband (father of Ed) and "learned from his critiques", but states that the academic was "writing in a different moment of history".[9]

Personal life[]

Schneider was criticised after online comments bearing his name were uncovered, in which he expressed support for Conservative Party candidates and policies, including a post on the right-wing ConservativeHome website, urging a Conservative candidate to defeat a sitting Labour MP. Schneider says that his online comments do not reflect his current thinking, and that "People can and they do change their political views".[15]

Schneider describes himself as "culturally Jewish".[16][8]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Winchester College: A Register. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 905 (Common Time 2000 list heading) & 913 (entry for James Schneider). Published by Winchester College, Hampshire.
  2. ^ "This is how Jeremy Corbyn's team believes he can still become UK prime minister".
  3. ^ "The fight of his life: on the road with Jeremy Corbyn". The Guardian. 2 June 2017.
  4. ^ "Momentum: inside Labour's revolutionary movement". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 March 2019.(subscription required)
  5. ^ "OEM shareholder face cash call | London Evening Standard". Standard.co.uk. 30 July 2004. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  6. ^ Charlotte Edwardes (12 March 2019). "Will champagne socialists soon be all Labour has left?". The Tatler. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  7. ^ Tatler. "Will champagne socialists soon be all Labour has left?". Tatler. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Gilligan, Andrew (13 December 2015). "James Schneider: face of Momentum activists - with education and childhood home 'paid for by fraud'". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b "Maintaining Momentum". jacobinmag.com.
  10. ^ Bennett, Owen (20 October 2015). "Momentum Is Not A 'Shadowy' Group With A 'Hit List' Of Labour MPs, Says Leading Organiser". HuffPost UK.
  11. ^ "Maintaining Momentum". Jacobin. October 2016.
  12. ^ "Jeremy Corbyn set to get extra media help - but not from Paul Mason". Total Politics. 14 October 2016.
  13. ^ Long, Camilla (23 April 2017). "Corbyn's posh boys can't crush 'the elite'". The Times. Retrieved 3 September 2017. (subscription required)
  14. ^ "Writers". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  15. ^ Jim Waterson (6 August 2016). "Co-Founder Of Corbyn's Momentum Distances Himself From Pro-Tory Comments". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  16. ^ "The Jewish Labour Gurus Striving to Turn Jeremy Corbyns Reputation Around". Haaretz newspaper. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2018.

External links[]

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