Beales worked as the NHS Performance Director in Tony Blair's Prime Minister's Delivery Unit where his remit was improvement of waiting times and infection control and cleanliness in the NHS. In 2007, Beales was employed as a Senior Advisor for Health and Social Care issues to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In 2010, he become Director of Policy for the Labour Party. Following reorganisation of the Party in 2012, Beales worked as its Executive Director, in which role he was responsible for strategy and the keeper of party polling for Ed Miliband. Beales was alleged to have urged a greater focus on immigration and the economy in place of specific retail offers. Beales was a member of the “quarterly look-ahead” group composed of Senior Miliband advisers tasked with the winning the 2015 general election for Labour; nevertheless he was conceived by the Spectator as a 'second tier adviser' who felt the polling he commissioned was frustratingly under-considered in strategic decision making. In 2012-2013 Beales was cited in numerous sources as the architect of Labour's focus on living standards and what the party dubbed a "cost of living crisis". In 2013, he was nicknamed Mr Freeze by the Financial Times after being seen to be responsible for the Labour party's proposals to cap energy bills. Geoffrey Robinson, Labour MP for Coventry North West was alleged to have told party activists that he would step down in 2015 to allow Beales to contest his seat; an email seen by the Coventry Telegraph's Simon Gilbert appeared to show Beales and Robinson discussing introductions to prominent members of the local Labour Party. However, Robinson subsequently contested and won Coventry North West.
Homelessness
Beales is currently the Director of Campaigns, Communications and Policy of the homelessness charity Shelter, a role which he took up in September 2017 after leaving his position as Senior Director of the multinational advertising agency WPP. In January 2019 he led the publication of the landmark independent Shelter report on the future of social housing and he has led campaigns to challenge discrimination against benefit recipients in the housing sector.
