Esther McVey

Esther McVey, Conservative MP for Tatton since 2017, worked as a television presenter and producer before entering politics. She co-hosted GMTV as well as setting up her own training business, Making It Ltd, before becoming a director of her family’s construction business. She was first elected to the constituency of Wirral West in 2010, joining the government as parliamentary private secretary to Chris Grayling, the employment minister, and then in 2012 became a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, ultimately succeeding Grayling is his role a year later. At the 2015 general election, she was defeated by Labour’s Margaret Greenwood, losing by 417 votes. After serving as chair of the British Transport Police Authority for two years, McVey returned to the House of Commons in 2017,taking over ex-chancellor George Osborne’s seat. That year, McVey became deputy chief whip and, in 2018, work and pensions secretary. She was a critic of Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, resigning from the government in protest in November 2018. In the 2019 Conservative leadership election, McVey ran under the new banner of the “Blue Collar Conservatives”. She currently sits on the Panel of Chairs.