Dr Matt Beech

Dr Matt Beech

Reader in Politics and Director of the Centre for British Politics

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Business, Law and Politics
  • School of Politics and International Studies

Qualifications

  • BSc (Aberystwyth University)
  • MSc (Aberystwyth University)
  • PhD / DPhil (University of Southampton)

Summary

Matt Beech is Reader in Politics and Director of the Centre for British Politics (@CBPhull). He is a political scientist and historian who teaches post-war British political history, government and the culture wars. Dr Beech is Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Institute of European Studies and the Centre for British Politics is partnered with UC Berkeley's Centre for British Studies. He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, Berkeley and Flinders. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

He currently leads Polarized Peoples: Examining the culture wars and how we can transcend them and Interpreting UK Legislatures (Journal of Legislative Studies) with Professor Mark Bevir (Berkeley).

He is the author or editor of 44 outputs on British Politics comprising books, peer-reviewed journal articles, edited volumes, special issues and book chapters. With Dr Simon Lee, he has edited six volumes on UK politics. His research papers have been published in the BJPIR, Parliamentary Affairs, West European Politics, Public Policy & Administration, British Politics, Political Studies Review, Policy Studies, Political Quarterly and Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique.

Dr Beech is Associate Member of the Centre de Recherches en Civilisation Britannique at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Heterodox Academy. He is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the American Political Science Association’s British Politics Group. He was a Thorneycroft Memorial Scholar at the University of Southampton, where he studied for his PhD under Professor the Lord Plant of Highfield.

He has spoken at events at the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Council of State Governments West, the Industry and Parliament Trust, the Social Market Foundation, the Danube Institute and the Fabian Society. He has had written evidence published by the House of Lords Select Committee on Soft Power and the UK’s Influence, and by the Committee on Standards in Public Life report into donations and funding of British political parties.

Dr Beech provides expert analysis for the print media and has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Le Figaro, The Globe and Mail and Bloomberg News. He has been interviewed in broadcasts for CNBC, BBC World Service, Sky News, BBC Parliament, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5Live, and Radio France International.

He has over a decade of experience in Knowledge Exchange including public policy consultancy. He has worked with parliamentarians, think-tanks, trade unionists, businesses, local government officers and journalists.

•British Political History Since 1945

•British Government

•Culture Wars

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Book Chapter

Conservative Party Ideology in the Age of Brexit

Beech, M. (2023). Conservative Party Ideology in the Age of Brexit. In M. Beech, & S. Lee (Eds.), Conservative Governments in the Age of Brexit (11-24). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21464-6_2

Journal Article

Brexit and the Labour Party: Europe, cosmopolitanism and the narrowing of traditions

Beech, M. (2021). Brexit and the Labour Party: Europe, cosmopolitanism and the narrowing of traditions. British Politics, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-021-00168-6

Divided by values: Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party and England's 'North-South Divide'

Beech, M., & Hickson, K. (2020). Divided by values: Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party and England's 'North-South Divide'. Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, 24(2),

Brexit and the decentred state

Beech, M. (2020). Brexit and the decentred state. Public policy and administration, Article 095207672090500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076720905008

The place of human rights in the foreign policy of Cameron's Conservatives: Sceptics or enthusiasts?

Beech, M., & Munce, P. (2019). The place of human rights in the foreign policy of Cameron's Conservatives: Sceptics or enthusiasts?. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 21(1), 116-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118819066

Research interests

•Culture Wars

•Brexit

•Conservative Party

•Labour Party

•Post-war history

Postgraduate supervision

• Culture Wars

• Brexit

• Conservative Party

• Labour Party

• Post-war history

Supervisions

Dr Peter D. Munce, 2011-2014. Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. Project: David Cameron, the Conservative Party and Human Rights.

Timothy J. Oliver, 2011-2016. University of Hull Anniversary Scholarship. Project: Britannia Rules? Does the Coalition government represent a continuation of an elite conception of Britain's place in the world?

Joseph Tiplady, 2019-2023. University of Hull Alan Johnson Scholarship. Project: Did the rising tide of state education lift all boats? An investigation into secondary education and attainment policy towards white working-class boys in England, 1997-2010.

Zeena Mistry, 2022-2025. Project: Why are British Indian voters increasingly voting for the Conservative Party? A study of electoral realignment.

Awards and prizes

Visiting Scholar, Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture, University of Oxford

2022 - 2022

Visiting Scholar at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford. Working with Professor Anthony G. Reddie in the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture on the project, 'Can we transcend the Culture Wars?'.

Associate Member of the Centre de Recherches en Civilisation Britannique, Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3

2018

Visiting Scholar, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley

2017 - 2017

Senior Fellow, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley

2017

External examiner role

External Examiner, University of Liverpool

2023 - 2026

BA & MA Politics Programmes

External Examiner, University of Nottingham

2023 - 2023

MRes Politics

External Examiner, University of Liverpool

2016 - 2016

PhD Politics

External Examiner, University of Leeds

2014 - 2018

BA & MA Politics Programmes

External Examiner, University of Oxford

2014 - 2014

PhD Politics

External Examiner, University of Leeds

2014 - 2014

MRes Politics

Journal editorial role

Member of Policy Studies Editorial Board

2010 - 2023

Member of Policy Studies Editorial Board

Membership/Fellowship of professional body

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2019

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

2017

Scholarship role

International Visiting Research Fellowship, Flinders University

2015 - 2015

Thorneycroft Memorial Scholarship, University of Southampton

2002 - 2003

Top