In 2007,Mann was elected as a Conservative councillor for Wadebridge West,serving briefly on the North Cornwall District Council before it was absorbed by the now unitary authority that is Cornwall Council in 2009,when he was re-elected. [8] In 2013,Mann retained his seat as county councillor for Wadebridge West. [9]
In February 2012,Mann resigned as deputy leader of the Conservative group on Cornwall Council in protest at £16 million of public money being used to fund a proposed sports stadium near Truro. [10] [11] In 2014,Mann met with Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Culture,Media and Sport Sajid Javid in Cornwall to campaign for the continued support for community leisure centres which were at threat of losing funding from the local authority. [12] [13]
Member of Parliament (North Cornwall)
In 2013,Mann was named as the Conservative Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for North Cornwall in the run-up to the 2015 general election. [5]
Mann was subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of North Cornwall after winning the seat in the 2015 general election. Mann received 21,689 votes,beating the previous MP,Dan Rogerson,by 6,621 votes with an approximate 9,000-vote swing. He became the first Conservative MP for the area since 1992,as well as contributing to the fact that all six Cornwall constituencies elected Conservative candidates—the first time it had happened in over a hundred years. [14] Along with Sarah Newton,MP for Truro &Falmouth,he took his Parliamentary oath in the Cornish language. [15] [16]
Following his election as an MP he resigned as a councillor in February 2016,after he had come under pressure to resign for his poor attendance at council meetings. [17] At the subsequent by-election in April 2016,his former seat was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate Karen McHugh. [18]
In November 2015,Mann introduced a Private Member's Bill to give Town and Parish Councils the power to hold community referendums to alter speed limits. [19] The Bill received its second reading in February 2016,but as it was opposed by both the Government and the Opposition,it was subsequently withdrawn. [20]
Mann campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the 2016 EU referendum. [21]
In December 2016,Mann was elected (unopposed) to the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Select Committee,on which he served until May 2017. [22] [23]
In June 2017,Mann was re-elected as the MP for North Cornwall following the snap general election,garnering 23,835 votes and a 50.7% share of the vote. His majority also increased to 7,200 votes. Mann was subsequently appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) for Transport –an unpaid role to assist and support government ministers in the Department for Transport. [24] Following the Cabinet reshuffle in January 2018,Mann was appointed as PPS to HM Treasury. [25]
In July 2018,Mann introduced his second Private Member's Bill –namely the Bathing Waters Bill –to introduce penalties which could be levied against water companies who pump sewage into the sea. During heavy rainfall,sewage is sometimes pumped into the sea through Combined Sewage Overflow systems to reduce pressure on sewage systems. [26]
On 16 July 2018,Mann resigned from his role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to HM Treasury in protest at the Prime Minister Theresa May's "watered down" Brexit plan. [27] In September 2018,he agreed with fellow Conservative MP Johnny Mercer that the Prime Minister Theresa May "could not lead their party into the next general election". [28]
Mann employs his partner as a part-time secretary on a salary up to £30,000, [29] [30] which drew criticism by the press. [31] [32] Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members,the restriction is prospective,meaning that Mann's employment of his partner is lawful. [33]
In May 2016,it emerged that Mann was one of a number of Conservative MPs being investigated by police in the United Kingdom general election,2015 party spending investigation,for allegedly spending more than the legal limit on constituency election campaign expenses. [34] However,in May 2017,the Crown Prosecution Service said that while there was evidence of inaccurate spending returns,it did not "meet the test" for further action. [35]
In March 2017,The Daily Telegraph reported that Mann was one of nine MPs who had claimed Amazon Prime subscriptions on their parliamentary expenses. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority,responsible for handling expenses claims,told the paper subscriptions could be claimed but MPs must "justify the subscription is primarily used for Parliamentary purposes". He responded that the subscription was a mistake after his office had purchased stationery from the website,and that Amazon had issued a refund. [36]
In December 2019,Mann was re-elected as Member of Parliament for North Cornwall,more than doubling his majority to 14,752 with 59.4% of the vote –up by 8.6 percentage points from 2017.
Shortly after his return to Parliament in January 2020,Mann was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gavin Williamson,the Secretary of State for Education. [37]
In 2020 Mann became one of four vice-chairs of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Whistleblowing,which has been subject to criticism by some campaigners on whistleblowing law reform. [38] [39]
Whip
In January 2021,Mann was appointed as Government Whip,Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury. That April he was shifted to become an Assistant Government Whip (unpaid). [40] [41] [42]
