The Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts and Heritage | |
| In office 29 October 2022 – 5 July 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
| Preceded by | Stuart Andrew (Sport, Arts and Ceremonials) The Lord Kamall (Civil Society, Heritage, Tourism and Growth) |
| Succeeded by | Chris Bryant |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts | |
| In office 30 September 2021 – 20 September 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Boris Johnson Liz Truss |
| Preceded by | Dame Caroline Dinenage |
| Succeeded by | Stuart Andrew (Sport, Arts and Ceremonials) |
| Lord-in-Waiting Government Whip | |
| In office 14 February 2020 – 20 September 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Boris Johnson Liz Truss |
| Preceded by | The Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 22 October 2019 Life peer | |
| Political Secretary to theprime minister of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 13 July 2016 – 24 July 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Theresa May |
| Preceded by | Laurence Mann |
| Succeeded by | Danny Kruger |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Stephen Graeme Parkinson (1983-06-30)30 June 1983 (age 42) North Shields, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
Stephen Parkinson, Baron Parkinson of Whitley Bay (born 30 June 1983)[1] is a BritishConservative member of theHouse of Lords who served asParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Libraries from March 2022 to July 2024.
Lord Parkinson was previously aSpecial Adviser toTheresa May when she wasHome Secretary andPrime Minister, and previously athink tank researcher and lobbyist.[2]
Parkinson was born inNorth Shields, and attendedPark House School inNewbury,Berkshire, before reading History atEmmanuel College,Cambridge, from 2001 to 2004, where he graduated with aBA(proceeding MA). During his time at Cambridge, Parkinson served as Chairman of theCambridge University Conservative Association in the 2003 Lent term,[3] and President of theCambridge Union in Lent 2004.[4] Parkinson subsequently wrote a history of the Cambridge Union,Arena of Ambition, published in 2009.[5]
After graduating from Cambridge in 2004, Parkinson went to work on the Home Affairs desk at theConservative Research Department, including during the2005 general election.[6][7] Later that year, he transferred to the department's Political Section to engage inopposition research on other parties, briefing Shadow Ministers ahead of media appearances, and was part ofDavid Cameron's briefing team asLeader of HM Opposition ahead ofPrime Minister's Questions.[6]
In 2006, Parkinson left the Conservative Research Department to take up a post as Director of Research at the Conservative think-tank, theCentre for Policy Studies.[6] He remained there until late 2007, when he returned toConservative Central Office, focussing on the party's target seats campaign.[7] He continued working at Central Office until the2010 general election.
After the 2010 election, with the Conservative Party returned togovernment, Parkinson left Central Office to become a lobbyist withQuiller Consultants, remaining there for two years.[6]
During his time at Quiller, Parkinson also played a key role in the victoriousNOtoAV campaign in the2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, serving as the Conservative Party's National Organiser in the cross-party campaign.[8]
In 2012 Parkinson was appointed aSpecial Adviser toTheresa May when she wasHome Secretary. He continued in this role until the autumn of 2015.[9]
In October 2015, Parkinson left his role as Special Adviser at the Home Office to become National Organiser of the ground operation for the successfulVote Leave campaign in the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[10][11]
In the aftermath of the June 2016 EU Referendum campaign, Theresa May became Prime Minister the following month, whereupon Parkinson rejoined her as a Special Adviser based in Downing Street, with the job title ofPolitical Secretary to the Prime Minister.[9]
At the2010 general election, Parkinson stood as the Conservativecandidate forNewcastle upon Tyne North, having been selected the previous year.[12] He came third, polling 7,966 votes (18.1%), although he managed to increase the Conservative vote by a third.
Parkinson had declared his interest in standing for a winnableconstituency at the2015 general election, and had been tipped for the shortlist insafe seats such asRichmond, Yorkshire; but in December 2014, he and another of May's Special Advisers,Nick Timothy, became involved in a candidate selection row. Both were removed from the Conservative Party's list of approved candidates by Party ChairmanGrant Shapps, reportedly on the instructions of David Cameron, because of his growing alarm at having such key allies of a leadership rival such as Theresa May in theHouse of Commons, and Parkinson and Timothy were given the pretext that neither had campaigned in theRochester and Strood by-election (with such campaigning being a requirement of candidates staying on the approved list). Both Parkinson and Timothy protested that as Special Advisers, they were bound by the Civil ServiceCode of Conduct, which specifically forbids senior civil servants from engaging in political campaigning. The Conservative Party subsequently apologised to both Parkinson and Timothy, but by that time it was too late for either to apply for a seat.[9][13][14]
On 28 April 2017, with Prime Minister Theresa May having called asnap general electionten days earlier, it was reported that Parkinson had been shortlisted for the "safe seat" ofSaffron Walden, following veteran MPSir Alan (now Lord) Haselhurst announcing his retirement from theCommons.[15]
Analysing the shortlist, former MP andConservativeHome Executive EditorPaul Goodman noted that, "Nor to date haveSpAds been shoehorned into constituencies against weak opposition", but that, "The case of Saffron Walden is perhaps more suggestive. Stephen Parkinson, the Prime Minister's Political Secretary and the former head of the ground campaign at Vote Leave, is up against Katherine Bennett, who hasn't fought a Parliamentary election previously, andKemi Badenoch, a member of theLondon Assembly who was beaten in the first round in [the Conservative selection contest for]Hampstead and Kilburn."[16] It was subsequently reported by theDaily Telegraph that Saffron Walden was one of four seats where Conservative activists had complained of a "selection stitch-up" over a Special Adviser being shortlisted alongside little-known rivals on the shortlist (with other instances beingAlex Burghart, May's Social Justice Policy Adviser shortlisted inBrentwood and Ongar; Chris Brannigan, Director of Government Relations at No. 10 Downing Street shortlisted inAldershot; andNeil O'Brien, May's Economy and Industrial Strategy Adviser who was reportedly putting his name forward for safe seats). TheTelegraph cited these instances of how "the party's leadership has been accused of using a rule change because of the snap election to 'foist its own friends onto local parties'."[17]Total Politics similarly asserted that "Theresa May now risks charges of election cronyism" after the shortlisting of so many Special Advisers, including Parkinson and Burghart, alongsideJames Wild (Special Adviser to Defence SecretarySir Michael Fallon) selected inNorfolk North, Meg Powell-Chandler (former Special Adviser to Communities SecretaryGreg Clark) selected inBirmingham Northfield, and Parkinson's university contemporary Will Gallagher (former Special Adviser to Justice SecretaryChris Grayling) selected inCity of Chester.[18]
In the event, after a last-minute change in the final line-up on the shortlist of three, with Katherine Bennett being replaced byLaura Farris, the Saffron Walden Conservative Association selectedKemi Badenoch for the seat rather than Farris or Parkinson, with Badenoch winning on the first ballot.[19][20]
Parkinson could not stand for election to the House of Commons at the following general election in 2019, having been elevated to the House of Lords just prior to theDissolution of Parliament.
He was nominated for alife peerage in Theresa May'sresignation honours, being createdBaron Parkinson of Whitley Bay, of Beyton in the County of Suffolk on 8 October 2019.[21] He was introduced to the House of Lords to sit on the Conservative benches later that month.[22] Aged 36, Lord Parkinson became theBaby of the House (the youngest peer in the House of Lords) for 24 hours until the ennoblement the following day of his fellow Special Adviser to Theresa May,Jojo Penn. Baroness Penn being two years his junior succeeded him as the "Baby of the House".
Three weeks after being ennobled, Lord Parkinson joined the Gambling Industry Committee.[23][non-primary source needed] In hismaiden speech in the Lords in January 2020, he opened by saying that he wished "to remind your Lordships of the large number of people who are concerned about the rapidly growing population and the contribution that net migration makes to that", before stressing "the sensible tradition of steering clear of contentious topics in one's maiden speech" as a caveat ahead of his then criticising theSupreme Court of the United Kingdom.[24][non-primary source needed]
In February 2020 Parkinson joined HM Government as a Lord-in-Waiting. In September 2021 he was promoted Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in theDepartment for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), being designated Minister for Art.[25]
During an interview onSky News on 31 May 2022, Lord Parkinson asserted thatimperial measurements, which the government was proposing to reintroduce, are "universally understood"; and, when questioned, that there are 14 ounces in a pound (the actual number is 16) and that one pound corresponds to 250g (the actual number is 454).[26][27]
As a government minister, Parkinson has promoted theOnline Safety Bill.[28]
In March 2017,Channel 4 News reported that, according to a cache of leaked documents and emails, Parkinson was one of the Conservative Party's senior campaigns figures at the heart of theparty election spending investigation relating to alleged over-spending during the 2015 general election campaign.[29]
In March 2018, Parkinson's ex-boyfriend Shahmir Sanni stated that he had directed the activities of pro-Brexit pressure groupBeLeave, in breach of electoral financing laws, through him in his position as a BeLeave volunteer.[30] In response, Parkinson issued a Downing Street press release, marked 'official', which revealed he had been in a relationship with Sanni during the referendum and arguing he had only offered 'advice and encouragement' in the context of their relationship rather than direction.[31] Sanni said in subsequent media appearances that he had to organise security for his family who live in Pakistan because of the unlawful status ofhomosexuality within the country, and accused Parkinson of "outing him" against his will.[32]Theresa May refused to remove Parkinson, stating that "My political secretary does a very good job as my political secretary" in response to a question fromDame Angela Eagle.[33]
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Parkinson of Whitley Bay | Followed by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Laurence Mann | Political Secretary to the Prime Minister 2016–2019 | Succeeded by |
