Chris Clarkson

Chris Clarkson won Heywood & Middleton from Labour’s Liz McInnes in 2019 (on an 8.4 per cent swing), turning the Greater Manchester seat blue for the first time since its creation in 1983. After growing up in Blackburn, Clarkson read law at the University of Dundee and became a corporate development manager for IRIS Legal and a corporate development consultant for Virgin. His political career began in 2011 when he was elected to Salford City Council for Worsley ward, standing down in May 2019 ahead of his successful general election run. Clarkson is a supporter of Brexit and a member of the Countryside Alliance, as well as of the Tory Reform Group. He is a member of the Science and Technology Committee as well as the Regulatory Reform group, and in November 2020 was appointed parliamentary private secretary to the Ministry of Justice. Clarkson has recently taken a stand against the online trolling he has received as MP. He voted against providing free school meals for children in October 2020 and, in response to discussion on Covid-funding, was recently branded “scum” by Angela Rayner in a heated Commons debate (she has since apologised).