Theo Clarke

Last updated

Henry Coram-James
​
(m. 2021)​
Theo Clarke
MP
Official portrait of Theo Clarke MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2019
Member of Parliament
for Stafford
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Children1
Parent
Relatives
Education Downe House School
Alma mater Newcastle University
Courtauld Institute of Art

Theodora Roosevelt Clarke [1] (born 4 August 1985) [2] is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stafford since the 2019 general election. Prior to her political career, she worked in the arts industry and founded the campaign group Coalition for Global Prosperity.

Contents

Early life and career

Clarke grew up in the village of Bibury in Gloucestershire. [3] [4] She is the daughter of Sir Charles Mansfield Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet and his second wife Teresa de Chair, a daughter of Somerset de Chair. Her younger brother is former athlete Sir Lawrence Clarke, 7th Baronet. [4] [5] Clarke also has a younger sister, Augusta. [4] She is the niece of the wife of the former Business Secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg. [6] [7] Clarke is a distant relative of US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. [5] [8]

She was privately educated at Downe House School in Newbury, Berkshire. [9] She studied art history at Newcastle University [8] and the Courtauld Institute of Art, specialising in Russian Art. Clarke worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the British auction house Christie's before founding Russian Art and Culture, an online arts magazine in 2011. [10] [11] She was also a co-founder of the Association of Women in the Arts, [12] and later founded the Coalition for Global Prosperity. [13] [14] As part of her work at the campaign group she volunteered in Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak. [15]

In February 2023, Channel 4's Dispatches reported Clarke went on an all expenses paid trip to Russia in 2012 as part of the Conservatives Friends of Russia group, organised by the Russian government of Vladimir Putin. [16]

Parliamentary career

Clarke contested the Bristol East seat at the 2015 and 2017 general elections as the Conservative Party candidate but was unsuccessful. [17] The party selected her as the candidate for Stafford on 26 September 2019. [18] The incumbent Conservative MP Jeremy Lefroy had previously announced that he would be standing down at the next election. [19] She was elected as Stafford's MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 14,377 (28.1%), [20] the largest in the constituency's history. [15]

Clarke has been a member of the International Development Committee since March 2020 and the Women and Equalities Committee since September 2020. [21]

On 5 October 2020, Clarke was appointed as the Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Kenya. She helped implement the UK-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement which continued the duty-free access to the UK market for Kenyan businesses after Brexit. The agreement carried forward arrangements agreed by the European Union and the East African Community. [22] [23] Clarke resigned this role in July 2022 in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership. [24]

Clarke endorsed Penny Mordaunt during the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. [25]

Clarke took maternity leave following the birth of her first child in August 2022. [26] [27]

In February 2023, Clarke stated she was unable to be re-selected as Conservative candidate for Stafford, further stating she intended to appeal to local members in an attempt to stay on as candidate. [28]

In March 2023, Clarke was re-adopted as the Conservative candidate for Stafford having won the wider membership vote. [29]

Personal life

Clarke married Henry Coram-James, son of John Coram-James and The Countess of Harrowby (formerly Caroline Coram-James) and stepson of the Earl of Harrowby, [30] on 14 August 2021 at the Church of St Mary, Bibury. [31] In March 2022, she announced that the couple were expecting their first child. [32] Their daughter was born in August 2022. [33]

In a speech to the House of Commons in October 2023, Clarke revealed she had been rushed into emergency surgery following the birth of her daughter, calling on the government to do more to help women who had been through "birth trauma". [34]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Lefroy</span> British Conservative politician

Jeremy John Elton Lefroy is a British Conservative Party politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the Stafford constituency in the 2010 general election and was re-elected in 2015 and 2017 before standing down ahead of the 2019 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Mordaunt</span> British politician (born 1973)

Penelope Mary Mordaunt is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth North since the 2010 general election. She has run twice for the Conservative party leadership in July–September and October 2022, losing to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Dornan</span> Scottish National Party politician

James Dornan is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who is Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Cathcart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Morton</span> British politician (born 1967)

Wendy Morton is a British politician who served as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldridge-Brownhills in the West Midlands since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Allen</span> British politician (born 1975)

Heidi Suzanne Allen is a British businesswoman and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire from 2015 to 2019. Initially elected as a Conservative, she resigned from the party in February 2019, joining and later serving as acting leader of Change UK. She resigned from Change UK in June of the same year, and joined the Liberal Democrats in October 2019. She announced on 29 October of that year that she would not stand for re-election at the next general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kemi Badenoch</span> UK Business and Trade Secretary since 2023

Olukemi Olufunto "Kemi" Badenoch is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Business and Trade since 2023 and President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden in Essex since 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Hughes (British politician)</span> British Conservative politician

Edmund Francis Hughes is a British Conservative Party politician who served in the Second Johnson ministry as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Rough Sleeping from 2021 to 2022. He has also been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Walsall North since 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Conservative Party leadership election</span> British Conservative Party leadership election

The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been elected. Nominations opened on 10 June; 10 candidates were nominated. The first ballot of members of Parliament (MPs) took place on 13 June, with exhaustive ballots of MPs also taking place on 18, 19 and 20 June, reducing the candidates to two. The general membership of the party elected the leader by postal ballot; the result was announced on 23 July, with Boris Johnson being elected with almost twice as many votes as his opponent Jeremy Hunt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Morrissey</span> American-British politician (born 1981)

Joyce Rebekah "Joy" Morrissey is an American-born British politician who has served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire since 2019. Morrissey has been a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury since November 2023.

Since the foundation of the Conservative Party in 1834, there have been numerous instances of antisemitism in the party, from both Conservative party leaders and other party figures.

The next United Kingdom general election must be held no later than 28 January 2025. It will determine the composition of the House of Commons, which determines the next Government of the United Kingdom. Significant constituency boundary changes will be in effect, the first such changes since before the 2010 general election. In addition, this will be the first UK general election where physical forms of voter identification will be a legal requirement to vote in Great Britain. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said it is his "working assumption" that the next general election will be held in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Edwards</span> British politician

Ruth Rosamond Edwards is a British politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe in the 2019 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, she worked in cybersecurity policy prior to her political career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alicia Kearns</span> British politician (born 1987)

Alicia Alexandra Martha Kearns is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton since the 2019 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, she identifies ideologically as a one-nation conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Anderson (British politician)</span> British politician (born 1967)

Lee Anderson is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield since 2019. Elected as a member of the Conservative Party, he defected to Reform UK in March 2024 after having the whip suspended. He is Reform UK's first and only MP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dehenna Davison</span> British Conservative politician

Dehenna Sheridan Davison is a British Conservative Party politician and former broadcaster. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishop Auckland since the 2019 general election. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up between September 2022 and September 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Clarke-Smith</span> British Conservative politician, MP for Bassetlaw

Brendan Clarke-Smith is a British politician and former teacher. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bassetlaw since 2019, having been elected in the 2019 UK general election. He served under Rishi Sunak as a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party from November 2023 to January 2024, under Liz Truss as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from September and October 2022, and under Boris Johnson as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister without Portfolio and Minister of State from February 2022 to July 2022, and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from July to September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Stafford</span> British politician

Alexander Paul Thomas Stafford is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rother Valley since the 2019 general election. He is the first Conservative to be elected for the seat.

The Coalition for Global Prosperity is a London-based not-for-profit campaign group that brings together community, political, military, and faith leaders in support of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's role in international aid and development.

The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following a series of political controversies.

References

  1. ↑ "Members Sworn". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 338. ISBN   978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC   1129682574. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  3. ↑ "Theo Clarke". Stafford Conservatives. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 "Lawrence Clarke's Christening". Tatler. 14 December 1990. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  5. 1 2 "Team GB captain Lawrence Clarke's near-death experience inspires him on the track". The Daily Telegraph. 5 March 2015. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  6. ↑ Perraudin, Frances (14 November 2019). "Unexpected candidates: from Count Binface to Rees-Mogg's niece". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  7. ↑ "Minister of State (Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  8. 1 2 Daly, Patrick (25 May 2017). "Tory candidate Theo Clarke claims to live 'near Stockwood' - she actually lives on 'Uncle' Jacob Rees Moggs' estate in North East Somerset". Bristol Post. Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "Our Year". Downe House School Magazine. p. 153. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "Theodora Clarke". Russian Art and Culture. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "About us". Russian Art and Culture. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  12. ↑ "Founding Members". Association of Women in the Arts. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  13. ↑ Clarke, Theo (11 July 2018). "Theo Clarke: Our army and our aid workers are both essential to the UK's security". ConservativeHome. Archived from the original on 4 January 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  14. ↑ "Our Team". Coalition for Global Prosperity. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  15. 1 2 Madeley, Peter (6 March 2020). "New Stafford MP Theo Clarke: Time for actions, not words". Express & Star. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  16. ↑ "Strippers, Spies & Russian Money: Dispatches | All 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  17. ↑ "Bristol East". BBC News. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  18. ↑ "Tories select election candidate to replace Jeremy Lefroy in Stafford". Express & Star. 26 September 2019. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  19. ↑ "Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy to step down at next general election". BBC News. 14 June 2019. Archived from the original on 14 June 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  20. ↑ "Stafford". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  21. ↑ "Parliamentary career for Theo Clarke". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 5 May 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  22. ↑ "Trade envoys". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 9 September 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  23. ↑ "UK-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement enters into force". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  24. ↑ @theodoraclarke (5 July 2022). "I am very sad to be resigning as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Kenya with immediate effect" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 July 2022– via Twitter.
  25. ↑ Madeley, Peter (12 July 2022). "Tory leadership race: Early favourite among region's MPs as nominations deadline looms". Express & Star. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  26. ↑ Madeley, Peter. "Senior politicians back Stafford MP over 'get back to work' abuse after she gave birth". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  27. ↑ "Tory MP dismayed by abuse received for taking maternity leave". BBC News. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  28. ↑ "https://twitter.com/theodoraclarke/status/1629215798072844291". Twitter. Retrieved 24 February 2023.{{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  29. ↑ "MP readopted as Tory candidate at second attempt". BBC News. 27 March 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  30. ↑ "Announcements". The Times. 26 January 2008. Archived from the original on 15 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.(subscription required)
  31. ↑ "Village Life July/August 2021" (PDF). Bibury Parish Council. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  32. ↑ "Stafford MP Theo Clarke announces she is expecting her first child". Express & Star. 18 March 2022. Archived from the original on 17 April 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  33. ↑ "Tory MP dismayed by abuse received for taking maternity leave". BBC News. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  34. ↑ "MP breaks down as she recalls 'terrifying' traumatic birth". BBC News . 19 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Stafford
2019–present		Incumbent
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.