Parliamentary career
Evans stood as the Conservative candidate in Birmingham Edgbaston at the 2015 general election, [5] coming second with 38.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Gisela Stuart. [6] [7] [8]
In September 2019, Evans was selected as the Conservative candidate for Bosworth. [9] At the 2019 general election, Evans was elected to Parliament as MP for Bosworth with 63.9% of the vote and a majority of 26,278. [10]
Since February 2020, Evans has gained a following on TikTok showing his day-to-day activities as an MP and provides explanations on various political processes. [11] One of Evans's most popular videos on the platform, which has been watched over 2,000,000 times, was his reading of a poem by Joanne Boyle in honour of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II following her death in September 2022. [12]
Since being elected in 2019, Evans has campaigned on the issue of body image. In September 2020, Evans introduced a Private Member's Bill under the Ten Minute Rule, entitled the Digitally Altered Body Images Bill. If enacted into law, the bill would require advertisers to label images which have been digitally altered. [13] In October 2021, Evans launched a new campaign asking the Government to recognise the issue of body image for the first time in UK law, in the Online Safety Bill. [14]
Evans served as a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee between March 2020 and December 2022. [15]
In February 2021, Evans suggested that mental health practitioners should be stationed at coronavirus vaccine centres. [16]
Evans formally recommended Twycross Zoo's project for a National Science and Conservation Centre in summer 2021, which will be built in his constituency, to receive funding from the Levelling Up Scheme. In the autumn 2021 budget, the chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the bid had been successful, with £19.9 million allocated to Twycross Zoo. [17]
Throughout autumn 2021, Evans raised the issue of the 15-minute wait after receiving a Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine, asking the Government if the data could be reviewed. Evans said in Parliament on 8 December that dropping the wait, if safe to do so, would "free up a huge amount of capacity when it comes to delivering the boosters". [18] The chief and deputy chief medical officers for the UK subsequently announced that having reviewed the data, it was safe to suspend the 15-minute wait in order to allow as many people as possible to receive a booster vaccine, and that retaining the wait presented more of a risk than dropping it. [19] Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed in Parliament on 15 December that the 15-minute wait would be dropped. [20]
In January 2022, Evans launched a podcast, Dr in the House, which covers topics like "mental health, body image and life as an MP" with "fellow MPs, famous faces and just some of the extraordinary people he comes across in his job". [21] Speakers on the podcast include James McVey, Dr Alex George and former-CEO of Twycross Zoo (situated within Evans's constituency of Bosworth), Sharon Redrobe OBE.
On 13 June 2022, Evans was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Home Office ministerial team, alongside Matt Vickers. [22]
On the NFU's Back British Farming Day 2023, 13th September, the Food and Farming Secretary Thérèse Coffey and the UK Government endorsed Evans's 'Buy British' campaign. This followed a petition by the National Farmers Union (NFU) in support of Evans's campaign which received over 25,000 signatures in only six days. [23] Morrisons, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Waitrose, Co-op and Tesco, [24] the UK’s largest supermarket, have all since taken up Evans’ campaign for a ‘Buy British’ button and implemented ‘British’ and ‘Best of British’ sections on their websites which, as Evans says, “gives consumers greater choice, supports our farmers and cuts down on unnecessary food miles.” [24]
In April 2024 Evans was nominated as Pagefield’s Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year, [25] losing out on the award to Lord Arbuthnot for his work to overturn the wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters and highlight the Post Office Horizon scandal. [25]
Personal life
In May 2019, Evans married fellow GP Dr Charlotte March; they first met whilst they were both at medical school. They live in the Bosworth constituency. Evans is the eldest of three brothers, all of whom have gone into medicine. [4]
In 2017, Evans became British Public Speaking Champion. He also played rugby during and after university, sang in a competitive barbershop chorus, was a Rotarian, and served as a primary school governor. [4]
Evans volunteered to help administer the coronavirus vaccine in Bosworth in summer 2021. [4]
In April 2024 Evans revealed he had been targeted, as part of the honeypot scam centred around William Wragg, having received unsolicited messages on WhatsApp. [26] [27] Evans immediately reported both sets of messages to Metropolitan Police, Leicestershire Police and Parliamentary Security [28] – blowing the whistle on the spear phishing targeting of MPs. Evans has since praised Leicestershire Police for their support but expressed concerns around Parliament’s handling of the situation. [29]
