Marcus Roberts to stand down as Fabians’ deputy general secretary

Marcus Roberts will be leaving his role as deputy general secretary of the Fabian Society following the election, it has been announced. Roberts has been at the Fabians for the past three and a half years, and is departing to take up “an exciting new position”.

Among his most notable work at the Labour-aligned think tank has been the strategy pamphlet ‘Labour’s Next Majority’, which outlined a 40% strategy for the party; its follow-up ‘Labour’s Next Majority: A Constituency Guide’; and ‘Revolt on the Left’, the research published last October which studied the impact of UKIP on Labour support.

Before joining the Fabians, Roberts worked on Ed Miliband’s leadership campaign and spent time in the US working for Obama’s presidential run.

Roberts said:

“After three and a half great years at the Fabians I’m moving on to a new adventure after the election. Working on issues as diverse as campaign guides, UKIP analyses and infrastructure policy reports has been both an intellectual challenge and a professional privilege. The Fabians aren’t just some of the smartest people on the Left but it turns out they’re some of the nicest people too and I will miss them tremendously.”

Fabian general secretary Andrew Harrop paid tribute to the work Roberts has done, saying he was “very sorry to see him go” and that he “has led a transformation in our research activities and made an outstanding contribution to our work on Labour’s electoral strategy”.

Whatever the “new adventure” that Roberts has planned is, we’re sure it will be worth following, based on his recent work at the Fabians.