Sarah Atherton

Wales elected three Conservative women for the first time in 2019, one of whom was Sarah Atherton who became the first Conservative MP to represent Wrexham (established in 1918). A Leave supporter – along with 59 per cent of her constituency – Atherton has an impressively varied CV. She left school aged 16 to join the army serving in the Intelligence Corps. After becoming a single mother, she re-trained to become a nurse and later became a social worker, specialising in older people and mental health. After some 27 years in the public sector, she started her own small business, a microbrewery. According to Atherton, her workload has tripled in her first year in office; she has tackled floods, a pandemic and been appointed PPS to the Wales Office. In August 2020, Atherton suggested that the army should be deployed to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel. Legal experts were quick to condemn her comments as “legally inaccurate”, with the director of Stand For All denounced Atherton for displaying a “staggering level of ignorance”. Since 2020, she has been a member of the defence and sub-defence committees.