Ben Spencer | |
---|---|
Shadow Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology | |
Assumed office 6 November 2024 | |
Leader | Kemi Badenoch |
Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care | |
In office 19 July 2024 –6 November 2024 | |
Leader | Rishi Sunak |
Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party | |
In office 25 November 2023 –5 July 2024 | |
Leader | Rishi Sunak |
Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge | |
Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |
Preceded by | Philip Hammond |
Majority | 7,627 (15.8%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Benjamin Walter Jack Spencer [1] 11 December 1981 Liverpool,England |
Political party | Conservative |
Children | 2 |
Website | Official website |
Benjamin Walter Jack Spencer (11 December 1981) [2] is a British psychiatrist and Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Runnymede and Weybridge since 2019.
Ben Spencer was born on 11 December 1981 in Liverpool. He attended a state grammar school in the West Midlands. He has a master's in mental health law and a PhD on Decision-Making Capacity. [3]
Spencer worked for ten years as a doctor for the NHS,specialising in mental health. [3]
At the snap 2017 general election,Ben Spencer stood in Camberwell and Peckham,coming second with 12.8% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Harriet Harman. [4] [5] [6]
Spencer was elected to Parliament at the 2019 general election as MP for Runnymede and Weybridge with 54.9% of the vote and a majority of 18,270. [7]
He is a former member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. [8]
On 3 October 2022,he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister without Portfolio and Chairman of the Conservative Party Jake Berry. [9] On 25 November 2023,he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party for Campaigning and Candidates –Disability and Diversity. [10]
At the 2024 general election,Spencer was re-elected as MP for Runnymede and Weybridge with a majority of 7,627. [11]
On 19 July 2024,he was appointed as Shadow Minister of State for Mental Health,Prevention and Public Health. [12]
Following the election of Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Conservative leadership election,Spencer was made Shadow Minister for Science,Innovation and Technology.
Harriet Ruth Harman,Baroness Harman,,is a British politician and solicitor. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for more than 40 years,from 1982 to 2024,making her the second longest-serving female MP in British history after Baroness Beckett. Harman was MP for Camberwell and Peckham from 1997 to 2024 and MP for Peckham from 1982 to 1997. A member of the Labour Party,she was Deputy Labour Leader and Chair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2015,and also briefly served as Leader of the Opposition in 2010 and 2015,after the resignations of Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband,respectively. She served in various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024. The same year,Harman succeeded Labour Party MP Jess Phillips as co-host of the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction,alongside political editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservatives Leader Baroness Davidson.
Kevan David Jones,Baron Beamish,,is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Durham from 2001 to 2024. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.
Timothy Paul Loughton,is a British politician and former banker who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham from 1997 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party,he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from 2010 to 2012 and has twice served as the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2016 and 2021,following the respective resignations of Keith Vaz and Yvette Cooper.
Philip Hammond,Baron Hammond of Runnymede is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019 and Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016,having previously served as Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014 and Transport Secretary from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Conservative Party,he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Runnymede and Weybridge from 1997 to 2019.
Sir Oliver Heald,is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Hertfordshire,formerly North Hertfordshire,from 1992 to 2024.
Runnymede and Weybridge is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Ben Spencer,a Conservative.
Camberwell and Peckham was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation until its abolition for the 2024 general election by Harriet Harman of the Labour Party. Harman had served for the previous constituency of Peckham since 1982. She is a former cabinet minister and the "Mother of the House of Commons",having the longest record of continuous service of any female MP.
Shailesh Lakhman Vara is a Ugandan-British Conservative former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Cambridgeshire from 2005 until 2024. He also served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September 2022.
Peckham is a borough constituency in South London which returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections are held using the first-past-the-post voting system.
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson is a British Conservative Party politician and consultant paediatrician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sleaford and North Hykeham since 2016. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health from September to October 2022. She has been Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care since July 2024.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers:Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990),Theresa May (2016–2019),and Liz Truss (2022). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and,decades later,abandon all-women short lists,something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Daniel Leonard James Poulter is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich from 2010 to 2024. Poulter is a psychiatrist,and served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health between September 2012 and May 2015. Initially elected as a Conservative,he defected to Labour in April 2024.
Melvyn John Stride is a British politician who has served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in Kemi Badenoch’s Shadow Cabinet since November 2024. A member of the Conservative Party,he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Devon since 2010.
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Helen Olivia Bicknell Whately is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Faversham and Mid Kent since 2015 and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since November 2024. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Transport from July to November 2024 and Minister of State for Social Care from October 2022 to July 2024,as too previously from 2020 to 2021. She also served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from 2021 to 2022.
Edward John Comport Argar is a British politician who was Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor from July to November 2024. He most recently served as Minister of State for Prisons,Parole and Probation from November 2023 to July 2024 and as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in October 2022.
Miriam Jane Alice Davies,known as Mims Davies,is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Grinstead and Uckfield since 2024. She previously served as MP for Eastleigh from 2015 to 2019 and MP for Mid Sussex from 2019 to 2024. Davies has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales since November 2024,and Shadow Minister for Women since July 2024. She previously served in various ministerial positions between 2018 and 2024.
Andrew Campbell Bowie is a Scottish Conservative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine since 2017. He previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nuclear and Networks from 2023 to 2024. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland since November 2024. He served as Shadow Veterans Minister and Shadow Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero from July to November 2024.
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