James Mark Dakin Purnell (born 2 March 1970) is a British former broadcasting executive and Labour Party politician who served as a Cabinet minister in the Brown Government from 2007 to 2009.

Purnell was selected as the Labour candidate for the constituency of Stalybridge and Hyde in 2001, and won the seat in that year's general election with a majority of 8,859.

After Labour was returned to power in the 2005 general election, he was appointed to the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Creative Industries and Tourism in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where he was in charge of preparing the legislation that liberalised the alcohol licensing laws of England and Wales and created tax breaks for the film industry.

cited his "commitment to consumers in the development of the national pensions saving scheme", particularly for listening to stakeholders and for his contributions to the personal accounts for low and middle earners.

[9] In June 2007, Purnell entered the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; he was its youngest member.

In September 2007 Tameside General Hospital inserted Purnell into a photograph, as part of a press release for a Private finance initiative (PFI) deal.

[10] Tameside Trust claimed that he agreed to the insertion[11] being late for the original photo call, Purnell denied this.

A spokesman on behalf of Purnell said that "Any allegation that James avoided capital gains tax is completely untrue.

When he bought his constituency home, the sale of his London flat fell through, but it was sold within the period that HMRC continue to treat it as not being liable for CGT ...

[14] Also in 2004, Purnell claimed £395 for an accountant's bill which included "tax advice provided in October 2004 regarding sale of flat".

A spokesman for Purnell stated: "James felt frustrated that the landlord refused to return the deposit.

He initially pursued the matter through legal channels but let it rest as the costs of fighting it further would far outweigh recouping the deposit".

The news came just minutes after polls closed in the local and European elections, in which Labour performed badly.

His letter to the Prime Minister, which was also sent to The Sun and The Times, read:[20] Dear Gordon, We both love the Labour Party.

[24] In July 2011, he appeared on Newsnight with proposals for welfare reforms, as part of his involvement in Blue Labour.

In February 2013 Purnell left the IPPR in order to rejoin the BBC as its Director of Strategy, on a salary of £295,000;[25] he assumed this position on 20 March.

An Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal was brought by the BBC's former Chief Technology Officer, John Linwood, when he lost his job in 2013 after the Corporation's £100m Digital Media Initiative failed.

During the case an email from Purnell was cited in evidence, which read: "We need a clear line on [John Linwood] on whether he is resigning or being fired and why".

[27] In late September 2016, Purnell was appointed as the BBC's Director of Radio and Education, in succession to Helen Boaden.