Robert Halfon

Robert Halfon has been the Conservative MP for Harlow since 2010 and is the chair of the Education Committee. Born to a Jewish father who was expelled from Libya in 1968 after Israel’s Six Day War, Halfon grew up in London. He attended the University of Exeter where he completed a BA in Politics and an MA in Russian and East European Politics. He led the university’s Conservative Association in the late 1980s alongside Tim Montgomerie and Sajid Javid. After graduating, he worked for a London hotel, before working as a researcher for then Constervative MP Harold Elletson and later for Michael Fabricant. He went on to become Oliver Letwin’s chief of staff and then director of Conservative Friends of Israel. Halfon first contested Harlow at the 2001 general election but was unsuccessful. Standing again four years later, he missed out by just 97 votes. At the 2010 general election, he was finally elected on a swing of 5.9 per cent and with a majority of 4,925. After his election, Halfon was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee and joined the Public Administration Committee. In 2014, he became parliamentary private secretary to the then chancellor George Osborne. Halfon was re-elected in 2015 with an increased majority and served as minister of state in the Department for Education from July 2016 to 2017. Following the 2017 general election in which he was re-elected with a slightly reduced majority of 7,031, Halfon returned to the backbenches and joined the Liaison Committee and became chair of the Education Committee. He saw his majority double to 14,063 in the 2019 election.