James Cleverly

James Cleverly is the MP for Braintree. Before entering politics, Cleverly was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, climbing to the rank of major in 2003. During this time, he trained with PC Keith Palmer, who was killed outside parliament during a terrorist attack in 2017. Cleverly is currently based at Central Volunteers HQ Royal Artillery in Woolwich, where he is a staff officer in the 1st (UK) Armoured Division. In 2007, Cleverly was elected to the London Assembly for Bexley and Bromley and served as youth ambassador under Boris Johnson’s mayoral leadership. First elected to Westminster in 2015, Cleverly has held a number of frontbench roles. He was deputy chairman of the Conservative party (2018-19), parliamentary under-secretary of state for exiting the European Union (April-July 2019), minister without portfolio and chairman of the Conservative party (July 2019-February 2020), minister of state for international development (February-September 2020), and is currently the minister for state for Middle East and North Africa. Formerly a patron of Advocacy For All, a charity helping people with learning disabilities and autism, Cleverly was controversially asked to step down from the position after voting in favour of a cut to disability benefit in 2016. Cleverly became a household name when he ran for the Conservative party leadership in 2019. He was the first candidate to withdraw from the race, and following his withdrawal, backed Boris Johnson for the role. Cleverly is president of the Ulysses Trust, which supports cadets and members of the reserve forces to undertake community-related activities.