James Heappey

James Heappey, Conservative MP for Wells in Somerset, has had a career in the army, serving in the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, followed by The Rifles, working in Kabul, Northern Ireland, Basra, Helmand Province and Kenya. He was posted to the ministry of defence in 2011, leaving the British Army with the rank of Major before going on to work as a researcher for the former defence secretary, Dr. Liam Fox MP. Heappey was elected as MP for Wells at the 2015 general election, unseating the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt on a swing of 7.4 per cent. He served on the Energy and Climate Change Committee, becoming chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Rural Business. Heappey caused controversy in 2017 when he swore at a sixth-former who supported Scottish independence; he was later forced to apologise, stressing that it had been a joke. He served as parliamentary private secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from August-December 2019, before leaving the prime minister’s office to become minister for defence procurement. Heappey has backed the Hinkley Point nuclear power station and has called for greater research into marine energy.