Victoria Mary Atkins (born 22 March 1976)[1] is a British politician who served in various ministerial positions under Prime MinistersTheresa May,Boris Johnson andRishi Sunak between 2017 and 2024, lastly asSecretary of State for Health and Social Care from November 2023 to July 2024. A member of theConservative Party, she has been theMember of Parliament (MP) forLouth and Horncastle since2015 andShadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since November 2024.[6] Before her political career, she worked as abarrister specialising inorganised crime.[1]
Atkins was appointedParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding at theHome Office in November 2017 by Prime MinisterTheresa May. Following the formation of thefirst Johnson ministry in July 2019, she remained in her post. On 16 September 2021, during thecabinet reshuffle,Boris Johnson appointed AtkinsMinister of State for Prisons and Probation andMinister for Afghan Resettlement; she oversawOperation Pitting in the latter role until she was replaced in March 2022. She resigned as Prisons Minister during theJuly 2022 government crisis, and called on Johnson to resign. AfterRishi Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022, she was appointedFinancial Secretary to the Treasury before being promoted to Health Secretary in theNovember 2023 cabinet reshuffle.
Victoria Atkins was born on 22 March 1976 inLondon, the daughter ofSir Robert Atkins,[1] a former Conservative MP andMEP, and Lady (Dulcie) Atkins, a Conservative councillor and mayor. She was diagnosed withType 1 diabetes at the age of three.[7]
Atkins wasprivately educated atArnold School, a co-educational school inBlackpool in Lancashire, and studied law at theUniversity of Cambridge where she was an undergraduate student atCorpus Christi College, Cambridge.[8]
Atkins wascalled to the bar (Middle Temple) in 1998.[9] She worked as abarrister in the field of fraud inLondon.[9][10]
In 2010, Atkins was shortlisted for thesafe seat ofSalisbury, eventually losing out toJohn Glen, who was elected MP for the seat.[11] In November 2012, she stood unsuccessfully in the first everPolice and Crime Commissioner elections for theGloucestershire Constabulary area. Although she garnered the most first preference votes, she lost to former police superintendentMartin Surl (anindependent candidate) when second preferences were counted.[12][13]
For the 2015 election, she was on the shortlist for theTonbridge and Malling seat, along withEdward Argar,Chris Philp, andTom Tugendhat. Tugendhat won the selection; Atkins and her other opponents were selected for seats elsewhere in time for the same election.[14]
Atkins was selected over three others in July 2014 as the Conservative candidate forLouth and Horncastle, at a meeting (referred to as an "Open Primary" by the party)[15] of around 200 local party members inSpilsby. It is a safe Conservative seat; all areas of it have been continuously held by the party since 1924.[16][17]
The retiring MP wasSir Peter Tapsell, who at that time wasFather of the House of Commons, having served the area for nearly 50 years in addition to his previous Parliamentary service. Former Prime MinisterJohn Major (who first entered theHouse of Commons at the same time as her father) supported her first parliamentary election campaign, and has known her since she was a young girl.[18]
Atkins was elected as the MP for Louth and Horncastle at the2015 general election, winning 51.2% of the vote and with a majority of 14,977 votes.[19][20] After being elected, Atkins was appointed as a member of theHome Affairs Select Committee in July 2015.[21]
Atkins supported the UK remaining within the EU before the2016 EU membership referendum, but consistently voted in favour of a referendum being held.[22][23] After the referendum, she voted in favour of triggeringArticle 50 in February 2017.[24][25]
At the snap2017 general election, she retained the seat with 63.9% of the votes and an increased majority, of 19,641.[26]
In June 2017, Atkins was appointed as ajunior minister.[27] FollowingPriti Patel's resignation as International Development Secretary, she replacedSarah Newton asParliamentary Under Secretary of State for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism in theHome Office.[28]
In theHouse of Commons she has sat on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (Joint Committee) and the Home Affairs Committee.[29]
In April 2018, Atkins said she did not know the number of police officers in the country during an 'awkward' interview withNick Ferrari on theLBC radio station. Ferrari informed her that the number was 123,142. This followed the leak of aHome Office report that concluded cuts to police numbers had "likely contributed" to a rise in serious violent crime.[30] The following month, she voluntarily recused herself from speaking on drug policy in relation tocannabis after it was reported that her husbandPaul Kenward's company,British Sugar, grows under permit a non‐psychoactive variety of cannabis which is used in children's epilepsy medicine.[31]
In June 2019, Atkins vetoed the appointment of Niamh Eastwood, the director ofRelease, to the independent advisory NGOAdvisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). She did so as Eastwood had previously been critical of the Home Office's drug policy on social media, including criticising a letter by Atkins in which she opposed the introduction ofdrug consumption rooms. Eastwood had previously been approved by a Home Office advisory assessment panel. A subject access request by Eastwood revealed that ministers vetted social media profiles of appointments to public bodies including references to "Windrush", "the government", "Brexit", and "anything diversity-related".[32] In October 2019, Professor Alex Stevens, a criminal justice expert, resigned from the ACMD over alleged "political vetting" of panel members by the government.[33]Kit Malthouse, theMinister for Policing, replaced Atkins as the minister responsible for the government's drug policy on 7 October.[34]
In the2019 general election, Atkins was re-elected for Louth and Horncastle with an increased majority of 28,868, obtaining 72.7% of the vote[35] from a turnout of 65.7%.
In September 2021, following thewithdrawal of foreign defence forces from Afghanistan andtakeover by the Taliban, Atkins becameMinister of State for Prisons and Probation at theMinistry of Justice and the Minister for Afghan Resettlement. She oversaw "Operation Pitting", the government's Afghan resettlement programme.[36] On 6 July 2022, during theJuly 2022 United Kingdom government crisis, Atkins resigned as justice minister, citing concerns with party leadership.[37][38]
In theNovember 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Atkins was appointedSecretary of State for Health and Social Care.[39]
Atkins was sworn in as a member of thePrivy Council on 15 November 2023 atBuckingham Palace following her appointment, entitling her to thehonorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.[40]
At the2024 general election, Atkins was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 37.5%, from a turnout of 61% and a decreased majority of 5,506. She was voted for by 22.7% of the electorate.[41]
Following the subsequent formation of theStarmer ministry, Atkins was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health in Rishi Sunak'scaretaker Shadow Cabinet.[42]
During a debate in the House of Commons on 19 July 2024, Atkins was admonished by Acting Deputy Speaker SirChristopher Chope for behaving "abominably" after attempting to intervene from thedespatch box asEnvironment SecretarySteve Reed delivered a ministerial statement. Her spokesperson defended her actions, saying Reed had failed to answer her questions.[43][44]
In November 2024, Atkins criticised the construction of overground pylons in her constituency, arguing instead that they should be built underground. Prime Minister Starmer defended them being built overground, saying it was necessary to provide cheap access to energy. Overground pylons between Grimsby to Walpole in Norfolk was estimated to cost about £1bn whereas it would cost £6.5bn to put them underground and £4.3bn for an offshore subsea cable.[45]
Atkins is married toPaul Kenward,[3] the managing director ofBritish Sugar.[31] They have one son.[4][5]
Family: Married to Paul, the Managing Director of a food company and has one son, Monty
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLouth and Horncastle 2015–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding 2017–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women 2018–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Previous: Andrew Griffith | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 2022–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Health and Social Care 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Cabinet members | .svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Also attended meetings | ||
| Departures | ||
