Michael Dugher
Senior Advisor, Head of UK Public Affairs
Michael Dugher leads Brunswick’s UK Public Affairs Practice, having joined the firm as a Senior Advisor in September 2024. He advises clients from a range of sectors to help them navigate political, public policy and reputational challenges.
Michael brings 30 years of high-level public affairs and communications experience to Brunswick. He was a Labour MP from 2010-2017 during which he served in the Shadow Cabinet as: Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; Shadow Transport Secretary; Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office; and before that Shadow Defence Minister. He spent most of the previous decade working in government in a variety of senior roles as a Special Advisor including at Transport, Local Government, the Ministry of Defence, and in Downing Street where he was the Chief Political Spokesman for the Prime Minister.
After standing down from Parliament, Michael became CEO of UK Music – the umbrella organisation that represents the commercial music industry. He was also a member of the previous Conservative government’s Creative Industries Council. From 2020 he was CEO (and later Executive Chairman) of the UK Betting and Gaming Council, the standards body and trade association for the regulated gambling industry. He also sat on the Advisory Council of the Tourism Alliance.
Michael is a Director and Board member at Nottingham Forest Football Club in the English Premier League, having been Patron and then Board member at their charity, the Nottingham Forest Community Trust. He was previously on the Board of the Ivors Academy Trust, the charity for songwriters and composers.
Michael holds a B.A in Politics from the University of Nottingham and was awarded a Fellowship from the Leeds Conservatoire (formerly the Leeds College of Music).