Christian Wakeford

Christian Wakeford is the first Conservative MP for Bury South since 1997 when Labour’s Ivan Lewis took the seat from the Tories. Lewis stood as an independent in the 2019 general election but just a week before the election announced that he was backing Wakeford and urged voters not to vote for him. This may have helped Wakeford secure his slim majority of 402 over Labour. Wakeford has worked in a variety of fields including as an account manager at an IT company, in insurance and as a caseworker for Andrew Stephenson MP. His previous political experience included leading the Conservative group on Pendle Council and serving as a Lancashire County councillor. He was the north west co-ordinator for Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign and also served as the Conservatives’ Lancashire area chairman. Wakeford currently sits on the Education Committee – in which role he has most recently looked at the impact of Covid-19 on education – and is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews. He is also a member of the International Parliamentary Network for Education, an initiative of Results UK that looks to improve financing for education.