The Big Issue is delighted to announce that its founder, John Bird, has today been appointed to the House of Lords as an independent working Peer in recognition of his work as the social entrepreneur who launched The Big Issue magazine, The Big Issue Foundation and Big Issue Invest.
As a crossbencher John Bird will owe no allegiance to any political party and will be free to take part in legislative debates free of the constraints of party considerations and consensus politics.
John’s appointment by the independent House of Lords Appointments Commission is based on his life experience of the matters closest to the heart of The Big Issue: social deprivation, poverty, prison and how socially-based entrepreneurialism can make a real difference to lives.
In turning around his own life by becoming a trail-blazing social entrepreneur, John has inspired millions with The Big Issue’s mission
Nigel Kershaw, Chair of The Big Issue, said: “At a time when there is a certain amount of controversy around some appointments to the House of Lords, I believe that John is a Lord we can all applaud.
“It is a testament to his character and vision – and to the changing world we live in – that John becomes probably the first Peer ever appointed on a lifetime of experience which includes being raised as an orphan in a slum, illiteracy, sleeping rough and being jailed as a young offender.
“In spectacularly turning around his own life by becoming a trail-blazing social entrepreneur, John has inspired millions with The Big Issue’s mission to provide a hand up to thousands of people too often forgotten by society.”