British politician (born 1985)
Mark Peter Fletcher [ 1] (born 29 September 1985)[ 2] is a British politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover from 2019 to 2024. He is a member of the Conservative Party .
Early life
Fletcher grew up in Doncaster , South Yorkshire , attending Ridgewood School .[ 3] The first in his family to go to university, he studied land economy at Jesus College, Cambridge , and was president of the Cambridge University Students' Union .[ 4] [ 5]
Career
Fletcher worked in the House of Lords as the chief of staff to the prime minister's trade envoy to Uganda and Rwanda ,[ 6] Dolar Popat ,[ 5] as well as for the private healthcare company Synergix Health, founded by entrepreneur David Ravechio and Byju Thickar.[ 7]
At the 2015 general election he stood in the Doncaster North constituency against Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband .[ 8] Two years later , Fletcher was the Tory candidate in Stockton North , where he achieved an 8.5% increase in the Conservative vote share but lost nonetheless to Labour 's Alex Cunningham .[ 9]
Fletcher also contested the local government elections in May 2018 at Tower Hamlets London Borough Council , coming second out of three Conservative candidates in the diverse three-member ward of Whitechapel . He gained 274 votes.[ 10]
Fletcher was chosen as the candidate for Bolsover in the 2019 general election . He defeated incumbent Labour politician Dennis Skinner , who had held the seat since the 1970 general election . After Harold Neal and Skinner, Fletcher was only the third person to serve as MP for Bolsover since it was first contested in 1950 . Fletcher was also one of two former Tower Hamlets 2018 Conservative council candidates to win a marginal seat in the 2019 parliamentary election, the other being Gedling 's Tom Randall , who had stood in Canary Wharf ward.[ 11]
Fletcher was involved in efforts to reopen a disused railway line in Ashfield District ,[ 12] a campaign to restore post-16 education to Bolsover,[ 13] and an endeavour to make major improvements to Junction 28 of the M1.[ 14]
Fletcher resigned from his position as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy following the Chris Pincher scandal , stating in his resignation letter that he was the MP who reported Pincher to the chief whip , Chris Heaton-Harris .[ 15] On 26 September 2022, Fletcher was appointed PPS to Kwasi Kwarteng , the new Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Liz Truss .[ 16] In 2023 he became PPS to Jeremy Hunt , the Chancellor to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak .[ 17] In November 2023, he joined the front benches when he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip.[ 18]
At the 2024 United Kingdom general election , Fletcher lost his seat to Labour candidate Natalie Fleet .[ 19]
Political views
Fletcher is a supporter of Brexit , voting to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum .[ 4]
Fletcher has been critical of the BBC , saying its employees and coverage "look down on working class communities in the North and Midlands . The coverage of Brexit was borderline farcical, wall-to-wall coverage of anti-British stories and negativity".[ 20]
Personal life
Fletcher is openly gay.[ 21] He is married to Will Knock.[ 5] On 19 February 2024, Knock said that they had been separated for six weeks.[ 22]
References
^ "Members Sworn" . Hansard . 18 December 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020 .
^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election . HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1 . OCLC 1129682574 .
^ Diver, Tony (14 December 2019). "More state-educated Tories in Parliament than ever before as party surges in Labour heartlands" . The Telegraph . Retrieved 17 December 2019 .
^ a b "About Mark Fletcher" . Mark Fletcher . Retrieved 23 December 2021 .
^ a b c Preston, Morag (16 April 2016). "I wanted perfection – I became groomzilla" . The Times . Retrieved 13 December 2019 .
^ "Prime Minister's Trade Envoys" . GOV.UK . Retrieved 12 July 2022 .
^ "Tory candidate was chief spinner for offshore-owned private health firm taking NHS contracts" . The Red Roar . Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019 .
^ "Doncaster North parliamentary constituency" . BBC News . Retrieved 13 December 2019 .
^ "Stockton North parliamentary constituency" . BBC News . Retrieved 6 June 2020 .
^ Wallis, William (3 May 2018). "Election results for Whitechapel | Local Elections, Thursday, 3rd May, 2018" . Tower Hamlets Council . Retrieved 3 June 2020 .
^ "Election results for Canary Wharf | Local Elections - Thursday, 3rd May, 2018" . Tower Hamlets council . Tower Hamlets Council Town Hall 160 Whitechapel Road London E1 1BJ. 3 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024 . Tom Randall Conservative 754 13.52% Not elected {{cite web }}
: CS1 maint: location (link )
^ Done-Johnson, Andy (24 June 2021). "MP urges Ashfield council to reopen long-closed station to improve connectivity for residents" . Mansfield and Ashfield Chad . Retrieved 9 July 2022 .
^ Rodgerson, Julia (16 January 2023). "Proposals Submitted for New Sixth Form in Bolsover" . Derbyshire Times . Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2023 .
^ "M1: Calls to improve 'famously busy' junction 28" . BBC News . 30 May 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2023 .
^ Lovett, Samuel; Stone, Jon (6 July 2022). "All the Tory MPs who have quit Boris Johnson's government in less than 24 hours" . The Independent . Retrieved 6 July 2022 .
^ Calgie, Christian [@christiancalgie] (26 September 2022). "Mark Fletcher is Kwasi Kwarteng's new bag carrier (fun day to start)" (Tweet ). Retrieved 26 September 2022 – via Twitter .
^ Starkie, James [@WhitehallPodUK] (5 June 2023). "Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS)?" (Tweet ). Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024 – via Twitter . @Jamesara & Jonathan are joined by Labour Shadow Minister @AlexDaviesJones, and Mark Fletcher MP, PPS to the Chancellor (@Jeremy_Hunt), to learn about what a PPS is & what they do.
^ "Ministerial appointments: November-December 2023" . Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street . 13 November 2023. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 28 November 2023 – via www.gov.uk.
^ "Bolsover | General Election 2024 | Sky News" . election.news.sky.com . Retrieved 5 July 2024 .
^ derbyshiretimes.co.uk. "Mark Fletcher MP Column: Under-fire BBC feels a million miles away from life in Bolsover" . Opera News . Retrieved 9 July 2021 .
^ Reynolds, Andrew (13 December 2019). "The UK's parliament is still the gayest in the world after 2019 election" . pinknews.co.uk . Retrieved 3 July 2020 .
^ "Threads" . www.threads.net . Retrieved 5 July 2024 .
External links