Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (born 5 November 1988) [1] is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Minister of State for Legal Migration and the Border from December 2023 to July 2024. A member of the Conservative Party,he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Corby from May 2015 until 2024 when he was defeated. [2]
Pursglove has previously served as Minister of State for Disabled People,Health and Work,Minister of State for Immigration,and Minister of State for Crime and Policing. [3] [4] [5] Aged 26 at the time of his election,he was the youngest Conservative MP of the 2015–17 Parliament.
Pursglove was born in Kettering on 5 November 1988,and grew up in Wellingborough. He was educated at Sir Christopher Hatton School,a state comprehensive school in Wellingborough,and graduated from Queen Mary University of London in 2010 with a politics degree. [6]
In 2007,at the age of 18,Pursglove became the youngest councillor in the country when he was elected for Croyland Ward on Wellingborough Borough Council. The election saw the Conservative Party extend their dominance in Wellingborough,winning 30 of the 36 posts available. Pursglove was re-elected in 2011,but did not stand again in 2015. [7]
In addition to his role as a councillor,Pursglove worked as a parliamentary assistant to the Conservative MP for Daventry Chris Heaton-Harris and worked with the Conservative MP for Wellingborough Peter Bone. Prior to being elected as an MP,Pursglove was deputy chairman of the Wellingborough Conservative Association. [8]
Pursglove was elected as MP for Corby at the 2015 general election with 42.8% of the vote and a majority of 2,412. [9] He won back for the Conservatives a seat that had been lost to Labour in a 2012 by-election after the former Conservative MP Louise Mensch stood down. [10]
In July 2016,following Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister,Pursglove was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Robert Goodwill,the Minister of State for Immigration at the Home Office.
Pursglove was re-elected at the 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 49.2% and an increased majority of 2,690 votes. [11]
In February 2018,following the announcement that Northamptonshire County Council had brought in a section 114 notice,putting it in special measures following a crisis in its finances,Pursglove was one of seven local MPs who released a statement arguing that the problems with the authority were down to mismanagement from the Conservative councillors who led it rather than funding cuts from the Conservative Government. They further argued that government commissioners should take over the running of the council. [12]
On 27 July 2018,following Ben Bradley's resignation over disagreements with the government's policy on Brexit,Pursglove was selected to replace him as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Youth. In February 2019,fellow Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston replaced Pursglove in the role following his resignation over the approach of the party towards Brexit. [13]
In August 2019,Pursglove was appointed as an assistant government whip in the first Johnson ministry. [14]
Pursglove was re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 55.2% and an increased majority of 10,268 votes. [15]
In September 2021,he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Immigration,Compliance and Courts during the cabinet reshuffle,a role held jointly between the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. [16]
In October 2022,following the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister,Pursglove announced that he would be supporting previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the subsequent leadership election. [17]
In October 2023,Pursglove was reported to have been campaigning with Peter Bone,who had been suspended from the House of Commons and had had the Conservative whip suspended. [18] Following criticism by the Labour Party about this,the Prime Minister's spokesman said that Rishi Sunak had confidence in Pursglove. [19] In the general election of 2024 he was defeated by the Labour party candidate.
Pursglove was one of the founders of Grassroots Out,an organisation which advocated United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union. The organisation was led by politicians from a range of political parties,including fellow Conservative MP Peter Bone and Labour MP Kate Hoey. In February 2016 it was announced that Pursglove and fellow Conservative MP Peter Bone would be speakers at the UKIP Spring Conference. Although rare for representatives of rival political parties to appear at such events,they argued any role they had there would be as representatives of the Grassroots Out group. [20]
In April 2016,Pursglove was criticised for taking payments of £21,750 from the Grassroots Out campaign,of which he was chief executive,which some fellow campaigners argued should have been donated to further campaigning. However,he argued his work had "keep costs to a minimum,allowing us to spend the maximum amount on campaigning",rather than hiring outside expertise. [21] In May 2016,he stated that,given the choice,he would ultimately prefer to see Britain leave the EU than his party secure another majority at the next general election,but also said that he was a 'loyal Conservative' and had no desire to defect to UKIP. [22]
In 2015,Pursglove expressed scepticism about human influence on climate change and advocated abolishing the Department of Energy and Climate Change. [23] Also in 2015,Pursglove questioned public spending on reducing carbon emissions in the UK on the grounds that countries such as China produce more emissions and therefore needed to take more action. [24]
Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district, in Northamptonshire, England, 23 miles (37 km) north-east of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby, which at the 2021 Census had a population of 75,571.
Philip Andrew Sawford is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kettering from 1997 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of Kettering Borough Council from 1991 to 1997.
Christopher Heaton-Harris is a British former politician who served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from September 2022 to July 2024, and as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from February to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry from 2010 to 2024.
HartlepoolHART-lih-pool is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Jonathan Brash of the Labour Party from 2024. The constituency covers the town of Hartlepool plus nearby settlements.
Boston and Skegness is a constituency in Lincolnshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Richard Tice of Reform UK since the 2024 general election. Like all British constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. Prior to Tice's election, it was considered a safe seat for the Conservatives.
Corby and East Northamptonshire is a constituency in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since July 2024 by Lee Barron, of the Labour Party.
Kettering is a constituency in Northamptonshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Rosie Wrighting of the Labour Party.
Wellingborough and Rushden is a constituency in Northamptonshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The seat is currently held by Labour MP Gen Kitchen, after the recall of MP Peter Bone in December 2023 which resulted in a by-election in February 2024.
Peter William Bone is a British former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough from 2005 until his removal in 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, he had sat as an independent in the House of Commons after the Conservative whip was withdrawn from him in 2023, until he was removed by a recall petition in December of that year. He campaigned for Brexit in the EU referendum and was part of the political advisory board of Leave Means Leave. From July to September 2022, he served as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons.
Sir Michael Tyrone Ellis is a British politician and barrister who served as Attorney General for England and Wales between September and October 2022, having previously served in the position from March to September 2021 during the maternity leave of Suella Braverman. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as Paymaster General from 2021 to 2022 and as Minister for the Cabinet Office from February to September 2022. Ellis served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton North from 2010 to 2024.
On 15 November 2012, a by-election was held for the UK House of Commons constituency of Corby. The election was held on the same day as by-elections in Cardiff South and Penarth and Manchester Central, the first direct election for the post of Mayor of Bristol, and the first Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Andy Sawford, the Labour Party candidate, won with 48% of the vote. The Conservatives' and Liberal Democrats' vote dropped significantly and UKIP came third with their highest-ever vote in a parliamentary by-election to that date.
Andrew Sawford is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Corby from 2012 to 2015. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he was a Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government from 2013 to 2015.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by prime minister David Cameron, won an unexpected majority victory of ten seats; they had been leading a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. It was the last general election to be held before the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016.
The 2016 Conservative Party leadership election was held due to Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as party leader. He had resigned after losing the national referendum to leave the European Union. Cameron, who supported Britain's continued membership of the EU, announced his resignation on 24 June, saying that he would step down by October. Theresa May won the contest on 11 July 2016, after the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom left her as the sole candidate.
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015.
A by-election took place on Thursday 15 February 2024 in the UK Parliament constituency of Wellingborough. This followed a recall petition held in late 2023 that removed the incumbent MP Peter Bone under the terms of the Recall of MPs Act 2015, triggered by his six-week suspension from the House of Commons for bullying and sexual harassment.
Genevieve Victoria Kitchen is a British politician who has served as Assistant Government Whip since 2024. She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough and Rushden since the 2024 Wellingborough by-election. A member of the Labour Party, she was a member of Newham London Borough Council in Greater London from 2018 to 2022.
Lee Jason Barron is a trade unionist and British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Corby and East Northamptonshire since 2024.
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