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Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

REPORT
Forced to Move: How to reduce climate migration to the UK

Reducing the impact of climate change on migration

REPORT
Labour's Plans for Childcare: Keynote Speech Bridget Phillipson MP
REPORT
The Next Moves Forward: Keynote speech Michael Gove
Apr 18
18:00-
21:00
EVENT
REPORT
Forced to Move: How to reduce climate migration to the UK

Reducing the impact of climate change on migration

REPORT
Labour's Plans for Childcare: Keynote Speech Bridget Phillipson MP
REPORT
The Next Moves Forward: Keynote speech Michael Gove

Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

Onward is a modernising think tank whose mission is to develop bold and practical ideas to boost economic opportunity and strengthen communities in all parts of the United Kingdom.

We are not affiliated to any party but believe in a mainstream conservatism. We recognise the value of markets and support the good that government can do, and believe that a strong society is the foundation of both. We want to seize the opportunities of the future while preserving the accumulated knowledge of the past. We believe that most people are hard working, aspirational and decent, but that many do not have the opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Our goal is to address the needs of the whole country: young as well as old; urban as well as rural; in all parts of the UK – particularly places that feel neglected or ignored in Westminster – by working with ordinary people directly and developing practical policies that work.

"There was a space on the centre right that we all knew existed but couldn't quite size, couldn't quite articulate. And then Onward came along and spoke to us about a change in politics that had been happening right under our noses. Some truths hidden in plain sight. Onward has always let the quality of its work sound the loudest. And we have all heard it."
Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
7 June 2022
"Into the arena, Onward stepped. The in-flight refueller. The next modernising thinktank. The engine which ensured that just as the process of government might be wearing thin, the Conservative Party was able to renew and refurbish its message, its personnel, its appeal and its coalition.”
Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
14 January 2020
“Thinktanks are expected to think the unthinkable but I don’t want us to think the unworkable. We have to think things that work politically, that is that pay some attention to whether people support them, where the costs fall and whether they work in practice."
Lord Finkelstein, Chairman of Onward
2018
“The question is how we forge an open-feeling, forward-looking conservatism that speaks equally to all. And I believe Onward is exactly what we need.”
Baroness Davidson, Former Leader of the Scottish Conservatives and Member of the House of Lords
2018
"I admire what you are doing here and we need more of it. Because what you are doing is leading an effort to rethink the meaning of conservatism and you are doing it in a way that is inviting social democrats to rethink their mission too. I think this is desperately needed."
Professor Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School
24 May 2022
"One thing that struck us that was informed by the work of Onward was that to make success of levelling up we need to build the economic foundations - the good jobs and businesses that tie up productivity and innovation. But as importantly, we need also to build those social foundations, buttressing and replenishing social capital and rebuilding social infrastructure...That’s why we had quite an expansive set of medium-term missions in the White Paper spanning both economic and social missions."
Andy Haldane, Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office
27th May 2022

Our work is focused on the most pressing issues facing the United Kingdom today. Our five programmes are:

Reducing economic disparities between places
A practical policy programme to transform science and innovation in the UK

Our work is regularly featured in print, broadcast and online media, including through op-eds and broadcast interviews from the Onward team.

Researcher Phoebe Bunt writes for Politics Home on tackling violence against women and girls in the UK, arguing that tougher legal sanctions need to be accompanied by tools that help victims to access justice, and give them reason to trust the system.

The Spectator publishes a transcript of Michael Gove MP's speech at the launch of Onward's 'Future of Conservatism'.

Sebastian Payne writes for the Times on what Nicola Sturgeon's exit could mean for unionism.

Sebastian Payne writes for The Times on what Nicola Sturgeon's exit means for unionism and nationalism.

Shivani Menon, Onward's researcher, wrote an op-ed for LGO about our recent report 'Levelling Up Locally'.

Shivani Menon, Onward's researcher, wrote an op-ed for LGO about our recent report 'Levelling Up Locally'.

Researcher Phoebe Bunt writes for Politics Home on tackling violence against women and girls in the UK, arguing that tougher legal sanctions need to be accompanied by tools that help victims to access justice, and give them reason to trust the system.

The Spectator publishes a transcript of Michael Gove MP's speech at the launch of Onward's 'Future of Conservatism'.

Sebastian Payne writes for the Times on what Nicola Sturgeon's exit could mean for unionism.