Selaine Saxby

After a state school education, Selaine Saxby studied mathematics and management at Cambridge. A life-long fitness enthusiast, she launched her own sports bra small business in 2000. After a company merger in 2016, she went to work for Ben Howlett, former member of parliament for Bath, as his chief of staff. When he lost the 2017 election, Saxby pursued a strong family connection to teaching by gaining a PGCE and becoming a maths teacher at Bideford College. She was elected as a North Devon district councillor in 2019, and won the North Devon parliamentary seat later that year with a 14,813 majority. Saxby voted to leave the European Union in 2016. In 2020, she joined the Work and Pensions Committee. In October 2020, following the heated public debate over extension of the free school meals for vulnerable children scheme, Saxby was criticised after she attacked local businesses that stepped in to offer free meals in a (later deleted) Facebook post. Saxby issued a statement saying that she regretted any offence that “may have been caused”.