Ken Clarke’s ex-adviser Lady Keswick joins Daily Mail board

A former special adviser to Tory veteran Ken Clarke has joined the board of the Daily Mail as a non-executive director.

Lady Keswick has been executive director of the right-wing think tank Centre for Policy Studies since 1995 and its deputy chairman since 2004.

There she has been involved in the publication of more than 100 public policy pamphlets on the European Union, the constitution, law and order, education, health, tax and regulatory affairs and women’s issues.

She worked with Mr Clarke from 1989-1995 when he held ministerial appointments at the Department of Health, Department of Education and Science, the Home Office and, eventually, when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher.

Before that she worked in advertising and journalism on the Telegraph Magazine and The Spectator.

Lady Keswick is a daughter of the Scottish aristocracy who has admitted she only became political in her early 30s, when the miners’ strike turned off the lights in her home.

DMGT said her extensive knowledge of Asia would support its growth strategy in that region.