Theo Clarke

Theo Clarke has had a successful career in the art world, studying at the Courtauld Institute of Art before beginning her career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and at Christie’s. She is an expert on Russian art, founding and editing the magazine Russian Art and Culture in 2011. Clarke is also an expert in international affairs, becoming Director at the Conservative Friends of International Development in 2016 and founding the Coalition for Global Prosperity (backed by Bill Gates), as part of whose work she volunteered in West Africa in the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak. Witnessing the need for political reform that followed the expenses scandal of 2009, Clarke decided to enter politics, contesting the Bristol East seat in 2015 and 2017, before winning Stafford in 2019 (with the largest majority in the constituency’s history). Clarke hails from a political family (her uncle-by-marriage is Jacob Rees-Mogg) and she is very active in the Commons, sitting on a number of committees including the International Development Committee, the Women and Equalities Committee, the Speaker’s Advisory Committee of Works of Art and the Committees on Arms Export Controls.