Martin McKee

He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and trained as a doctor at The Queen’s University of Belfast and specialized initially in internal medicine at Belfast City Hospital, before moving into public health. McKee currently lives in London with his wife Dorothy and two daughters.

His involvement in the article Why has mortality in England and Wales been increasing?, written with Danny Dorling and others generated considerable publicity. The article suggested that the most likely reason for increased mortality among old people in England and Wales in 2015 was the application of austerity policies, saying that “the evidence points to a major failure of the health system, possibly exacerbated by failings in social care”.

He has been a critic of the NHS reforms introduced by the UK's coalition government in 2012, arguing that they were unworkable and would lead to fragmentation and confusion. In January 2014 he said that continuing health inequalities among London boroughs was a scandal and that coalition reforms had left it unclear who was supposed to analyse health data and tackle the problems highlighted.

McKee has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Debrecen (Hungary), Maastricht (The Netherlands), Karlstad (Sweden), Queen's (Belfast), and the Nordic School of Public Health. He has been elected to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. He was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to health in the 2005 Birthday Honours.

Appointed to a senior lecturer post in 1989 with responsibility for developing a program of research in Europe, he was immediately confronted with two major changes: the collapse of the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe and, later, in the USSR, and the removal of borders within the expanding European Union. He has led major programs on both issues. With his colleagues Professor David Leon and Vladimir Shkolnikov, he has contributed important new insights into the adverse health consequences of rapid social and political transition, the entry of the international tobacco corporations into these new markets, and the role of alcohol, and especially substances such as aftershaves (odekolon) in the high levels of premature mortality seen in this region. More recently, his work on social change has extended into a large body of research on the health effects of the post-2007 financial crisis, jointly with Dr David Stuckler. His research on the European Union has included books and articles on the impact of European law on health and health policy, European research policy, and cross-border mobility of patients. In 2013 he led a Lancet series on health in Europe. In 2016 he co-founded Healthier IN the EU, a grassroots campaign making the health case for continued UK membership of the European Union.

Clifford Martin McKee, CBE (born 12 July 1956), is professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.