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Mark Fletcher (politician)

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Mark Fletcher
Official portrait, 2020
Assistant Government Whip
In office
14 November 2023 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Succeeded byChristian Wakeford
Member of Parliament
for Bolsover
In office
12 December 2019 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byDennis Skinner
Succeeded byNatalie Fleet
Personal details
Born (1985-09-29) 29 September 1985 (age 38)
Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseWill Knock
EducationRidgewood School
Alma materJesus College, Cambridge
Websitemark-fletcher.org.uk

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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  1. ^ "Members Sworn". Hansard. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 28 January 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. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ a b "About Mark Fletcher". Mark Fletcher. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Preston, Morag (16 April 2016). "I wanted perfection – I became groomzilla". The Times. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  6. ^ "Prime Minister's Trade Envoys". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ "Doncaster North parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  9. ^ "Stockton North parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  10. ^ Wallis, William (3 May 2018). "Election results for Whitechapel | Local Elections, Thursday, 3rd May, 2018". Tower Hamlets Council. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  11. ^ "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)
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "M1: Calls to improve 'famously busy' junction 28". BBC News. 30 May 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ "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.
  19. ^ "Bolsover | General Election 2024 | Sky News". election.news.sky.com. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ "Threads". www.threads.net. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Bolsover
2019–2024 		Succeeded by
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