Jack Lopresti | |
---|---|
![]() Official portrait, 2017 | |
Member of Parliament for Filton and Bradley Stoke | |
In office 6 May 2010 –30 May 2024 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | TBC |
Personal details | |
Born | Giacomo Lopresti 23 August 1969 Southmead,Bristol,England |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouses |
|
Children | 4 |
Website | jacklopresti |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch/service | Army Reserve |
Years of service | 2007–present |
Rank | Corporal |
Giacomo "Jack" Lopresti [1] (born 23 August 1969) [2] is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Filton and Bradley Stoke from the 2010 general election until 2024. Lopresti was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in February 2023.
Lopresti was born on 23 August 1969 in Southmead in Bristol. After leaving school, Lopresti worked in his father's ice cream business for over ten years. A former estate agent and mortgage broker, [3] he worked for the Conservative Party as a Regional Development Officer and in the Conservative Party Treasurer's Department.
Lopresti served in the Territorial Army as a gunner with 266 Commando Battery, Royal Artillery from 2007. He served, as a mobilised reservist, with 29 Commando RA for a year and was deployed in Helmand Province, in Afghanistan, on Operation Herrick 9 for five months over Christmas and New Year 2008/9. While in Afghanistan, Lopresti ran the Camp Bastion Half Marathon, for Help for Heroes, on New Years Day 2009. [4] [5] From 2011 to 2013, Lopresti served as a trooper in the Royal Wessex Yeomanry, an army reserve cavalry unit.
Lopresti unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Bedminster ward of Bristol City Council in 1995. He was again unsuccessful when he stood in Hartcliffe ward in 1997 and Redland ward in 1998, but was subsequently elected in the Stockwood Ward in 1999. He worked as councillor in that ward until May 2007, when he stood down and a new Conservative candidate won the seat. [6]
He stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the Bristol East constituency in 2001, and for the South West at the European Parliament elections in 2004. Although the Conservative Party did win three seats in the region, Lopresti was the sixth candidate for the seven seats that were available.
Lopresti was a member of the Conservative Party's A-List in 2006. [7] [8] At the 2010 general election, he was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Filton and Bradley Stoke, a constituency newly created after boundary changes. [9]
In 2011, he was a member of the special Select Committee set up to scrutinise the Bill that became the Armed Forces Act 2011. [10] He also served on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee [11]
Lopresti is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, [12] and has attended delegations of that group [13] including during the Operation Defensive Shield conflict when he visited in 2014 for an Israeli military briefing on the Iron Dome air defence system. [14]
At the 2015 general election, he retained his seat with an increased majority of almost 10,000 votes. [15]
Lopresti supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum. [16]
In July 2016, Lopresti was criticised for sponsoring and hosting a parliamentary event at which Bahrain's relationship with the UK was to be celebrated, after the MP had received several thousand pounds' worth of funding for foreign trips to the country. Opposition MPs objected to him taking gifts from a country whose human rights record had been criticised. Lopresti had faced further questions over one of the trips to Bahrain, which was paid for by the state's foreign affairs ministry, when it was reported he had attended it with fellow MP Andrea Jenkyns a month after their affair had been revealed. Neither of them were members of The Conservative Middle East Council (who had organised the trip from the UK side). Lopresti responded that the trip centred around the Bahraini Airshow, which was relevant to his defence brief, while he argued more generally that Bahrain is one of the country's key strategic allies in the Gulf and that the Bahrainis were in the process of building the UK's first naval base east of Suez since the 1970s. [17] [18]
Lopresti was subject to a failed attempt before the 2017 general election by some members of his local party to deselect him as the Conservative Candidate for Filton and Bradley Stoke. This followed reports in the press that he had been having an extramarital affair with a fellow MP. [19] There was, he said, a "vicious smear campaign" in the constituency and an "attempt to destroy my character and reputation" after revelations about his private life. [20] Lopresti said he had made a complaint to the police over a letter urging Lopresti's deselection, which had been circulated by a "former very bitter party member and possibly a disgruntled employee", and appeared to have broken data protection laws. He was re-selected. [21]
At the 2017 UK general election, he retained his seat, but with a decreased majority.
In Parliament, Lopresti has served on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Armed Forces Bill Committee and Defence Committee. [22]
In December 2017, BBC News Online reported that Lopresti was facing an investigation after his ex-office manager made a formal complaint about his behaviour, following her resignation. A senior Conservative councillor in Bristol subsequently claimed there was "ample grounds" to believe the bullying allegations surrounding the MP due to his "character flaws" and past behaviour. However, two former staff members said they had had a good relationship with Lopresti, and that he was a good employer. [23] [24] Subsequent to this, the BBC reported on 11 July 2019 that the ex-office manager, Jo Kinsey, felt she had been 'vindicated' following her complaint, having received a letter of apology from Lopresti following an internal Conservative party investigation. Lopresti said he categorically rejected the allegations, and had concerns about the inquiry process. [25]
In the December 2019 general election, Lopresti retained his seat once again, with a slightly greater majority than in 2017.
On 8 April 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, Lopresti sent a letter to cabinet minister Robert Jenrick asking him to reopen churches for Easter. [26] [27]
Jack was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, serving alongside Nickie Aiken, Lee Anderson, Luke Hall and Matthew Vickers since 2023.
Lopresti lost his seat in parliament in the general election of 4 July 2024, gaining 12,905 votes compared to Labour's Claire Hazelgrove with 22,905.
Lopresti, who is of Sicilian ancestry, is divorced from his former wife Lucy, the daughter of Lord Cope of Berkeley; the couple had three children. [28]
Following his divorce from Lucy Cope, Lopresti married Andrea Jenkyns MP in St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster on 22 December 2017 and they have a son named Clifford George, born on 29 March 2017. [29] However, according to a tweet by Jenkyns on 16 April 2024, the couple are divorced, “To those lefty trolls trying to deflect from Rayner by saying Jack and I are doing something dodgy with accommodation. This is complete rubbish, and there is nothing to see here, I am divorced!” [30] It is unclear when their divorce was finalised.
Lopresti was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013. He has received treatment at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. [31]
Sir Robert Andrew Raymond Syms is a Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Poole from 1997 to 2024. He received a knighthood in 2017.
Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, 6 miles (10 km) north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church dates back to the 12th century and is designated a Grade II listed building.
Bristol North West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Darren Jones of the Labour Party.
Kingswood was a borough constituency for the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years by the first-past-the-post electoral system.
Filton and Bradley Stoke is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Claire Hazelgrove from the Labour Party.
Thornbury and Yate is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2024 election by Claire Young, a member of the Liberal Democrats. Encompassing an area to the north-east of Bristol, it is one of three constituencies that make up the South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority Area, along with Filton and Bradley Stoke and Kingswood.
The Conservative A-List, also called Priority List, was a list of United Kingdom candidates drawn up by Conservative Central Office at the behest of David Cameron following his election as party leader in December 2005, aimed as a means of broadening the number of Conservative Members of Parliament, potential peers and MEPs from minority groups and women as well as other preferred candidates for candidature. Where the preferred forums for selection were held, at least two members from the list were put to every open primary, and where these were not held the A-list were recommended directly, particularly to the top target seats.
Benjamin David Bradley is a British Conservative Party politician who formerly served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield, Nottinghamshire from 2017 to 2024.
Claire Ruth Hazelgrove is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Filton and Bradley since 2024. She gained the seat from Jack Lopresti, a Conservative.
Ross Thomson is a former Scottish Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South from 2017 to 2019. Thomson was the first Conservative MP elected for Aberdeen South since the 1992 general election, 25 years earlier. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region from May 2016 until June 2017. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in the 2012 local elections.
Sir Conor Burns is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bournemouth West from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Minister of State for Trade Policy from 2019 to 2020 and again in 2022 and Minister of State for Northern Ireland from 2021 to 2022.
Sir Mark Steven Spencer is a British politician who served as Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries between 2022 and 2024. He previously served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from February to September 2022 and as Chief Whip from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sherwood between 2010 and 2024. He lost his seat in the 2024 election.
Dame Andrea Marie Jenkyns is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood from 2015 to 2024.
A by-election took place in the British parliamentary constituency of Copeland on 23 February 2017, following the resignation of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Jamie Reed. Conservative candidate Trudy Harrison gained the seat from Labour, the first gain for a governing party in a by-election since 1982.
Jack Edgar Brereton is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Stoke-on-Trent South constituency from the 2017 general election until 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he is a former councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Jonathan Edward Gullis is a British politician and former teacher who served as a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from March to July 2024 and previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North from 2019 to 2024. He was previously appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for School Standards by Liz Truss in September 2022 but was dismissed shortly after Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022. In March 2024, Gullis was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, replacing Luke Hall who had been appointed Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education.
Blue Collar Conservatives are a pressure group and caucus of Conservative Party Members of Parliament who identify as working class conservatives. It was founded in 2012 by former cabinet minister Esther McVey and a former conservative parliamentary candidate for Workington and Fujitsu UK’s head of corporate affairs, Clark Vasey. It was relaunched at the beginning of the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election by Esther McVey, Ben Bradley, the MP for Mansfield since 2017, and Scott Mann, the MP for North Cornwall since 2015. The relaunch was reported to have rivalled the recent establishment of the One Nation Conservatives.
A by-election took place on 15 February 2024 in the UK Parliament constituency of Kingswood in South Gloucestershire. This followed the resignation of Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, in protest at the UK government's decision to issue more oil and gas licences. Skidmore announced his resignation on 5 January and it was effected three days later.
{{cite news}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)