Eddie Hughes

Before his election, Eddie Hughes was chief executive of a local charity to help provide accommodation to young people and was chairman of Walsall Housing Group until 2018. He was also a trustee of the Walsall Wood Allotment Charity and sat on the West Midlands Police Authority. From 1998, he was a councillor for the Hatherson Rushall ward until becoming an MP. In 2018, Hughes was appointed a PPS to the ministerial team of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where he campaigned for more police on the streets. He later became PPS to Dominic Raab in the Department for Exiting the European Union. Hughes voted Leave in the 2016 referendum and in January 2019, he resigned from this position so that he was free to vote against Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. He later backed the deal at the third vote and supported Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill. In 2018, Hughes was chair of the APPG for Excellence in the Built Environment which published an inquiry into the need for a New Homes Ombudsman; one was later announced by the government. He has worked for the libertarian think tank Free UK.