Darren Henry
MP
Official portrait, 2020
Assistant Government Whip
In office
20 September 2022 – 27 October 2022
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Member of Parliament
for Broxtowe
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byAnna Soubry
Majority5,331 (9.6%)
Personal details
Born
Darren George Henry

(1968-08-04) 4 August 1968
Bedford, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseCaroline Henry
Children2
ResidenceBroxtowe
Alma materUniversity of Lincoln
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionLogistician
Websitewww.darrenhenry.org.uk
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service Royal Air Force
Years of service1987–2013
RankSquadron Leader

Darren George Henry (born 4 August 1968)[1] is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Broxtowe since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he defeated the outgoing MP and former leader of Change UK, Anna Soubry.[2] Henry briefly served as an Assistant Government Whip from September to October 2022.[3]

Early life

Henry was born in Bedford, England, to a Jamaican-born father, Harry. His mother, Gloria, was from Trinidad.[4] During his youth, Henry attended Rushmoor School.[5] Before entering politics, Henry served in the Royal Air Force.[4] On 8 April 1993, when he was serving as a corporal, he was commissioned as a flying officer in the supply branch, with seniority from 28 July 1992.[6] He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 28 July 1996[7] and to squadron leader on 1 January 2007.[8]

Political career

In early 2014, Henry joined the Conservatives, noting that whilst campaigning was possible in military service it had not occurred to him to do so up until this point.[9]

During Henry's first year of membership, he aided Robert Jenrick in his campaign to win the 2014 Newark by-election.[10]

After a few months of membership, he sought nomination to be the Conservative candidate in North West Hampshire. He was listed, but lost to former Deputy Mayor of London Kit Malthouse.[11]

At the 2015 general election he was selected as the Conservative candidate for Wolverhampton North East, in the West Midlands.[12] He was also employed as General Manager at Harvest Fine Foods.[13] He came second to Labour's Emma Reynolds, seeing a decline of 4.4% in the Conservative vote share.[14]

Henry served as a parish councillor in Shrewton, Wiltshire before resigning in September 2019.[15]

Henry was also Conservative member of the Wiltshire Council unitary authority from May 2017 until January 2020.[16][17] As Henry assumed office as Member of Parliament for Broxtowe on 12 December 2019, this meant that he briefly had a dual mandate for both Wiltshire and Broxtowe.

In early 2019, Henry was shortlisted to be Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner[18] but lost the selection to fellow Wiltshire councillor Jonathon Seed in April 2019.[19] The May 2020 Wiltshire police and crime commissioner election was postponed until 2021;[20] it was won by Seed, who did not take up the post after a historical drink-driving offence was revealed.[21]

In summer 2019, he was shortlisted, along with Tony Devenish and Felicity Buchan, for the ultra-marginal West London seat of Kensington. He failed to be selected.[22] Following this, he was selected as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Broxtowe in September 2019.[23]

At a 2019 general election hustings in Broxtowe, Henry said that he might introduce a private member's bill for a ban on payday loans advertising, and suggested that food bank users needed help understanding money and budgeting. At the same hustings he stated; "When people are really, really down, and when people haven't got the money, one of the things they can look to do is to get a payday loan or something like that." Reaction to this speech was audibly negative.[24]

During the election, Henry is said to have leveraged an existing relationship with Robert Jenrick to have Jenrick commit to funding Stapleford (a ward within Broxtowe) with £25 million, but only if Henry won the seat and the Conservative party won a majority.[25]

In his maiden speech made on 25 June 2020,[26] which was also in the week marking 72 years since the arrival of the Windrush generation to the UK, Henry spoke negatively of Labour for its representation of immigrants and those of the Windrush generation. Henry spoke of his pride in being the first Conservative parliamentarian of West Indian heritage.[27][28] On 21 July 2020, in a debate on the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, Henry used a question to state "party politics is shameful" and also used the opportunity to criticise Labour for not working with the Government to "right the wrongs of Windrush".[29]

Henry was elected co-chair of the Midlands Engine All-party parliamentary group on 22 July 2020.[30]

In March 2021, Henry apologised after a member of his staff was alleged to have turned up at the home of a blogger to get him to take down an article. Henry said he was unaware the incident had happened until it was published online.[31]

In January 2022, a briefing released by the TaxPayers' Alliance revealed Henry to be "Britain's most expensive MP..." after £280,936 of expense claims during the 2020/2021 financial year.[32][33]

Following the resignation of 50 ministers and aides from the service of Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 7 July 2022,[34] Henry reaffirmed his support for the Prime Minister.[35]

Personal life

Darren Henry is married to Caroline, who was elected as the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner for the Conservative Party in 2021 and banned from driving for six months in 2022 after breaking the speed limit five times.[36][37] They have twins.[38]

References

  1. ↑ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019: the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  2. ↑ "Broxtowe parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC News Online. BBC. 13 December 2019. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Video". YouTube. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "Tweet". twitter.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  6. ↑ "No. 53324". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 1993. p. 9825.
  7. ↑ "No. 54506". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 March 1996. p. 11441.
  8. ↑ "No. 58206". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 2 January 2007. p. 18044.
  9. ↑ "July 2020: Darren Henry MP and Ren Kapur MBE by CF Armed Forces • A podcast on Anchor". Anchor. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  10. ↑ "Robert Jenrick at the Newark by-election". Darren Henry. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  11. ↑ "July 2020: Darren Henry MP and Ren Kapur MBE". Event occurs at 11:30:00. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Conservatives chose Wolverhampton candidate for general election". Expressandstar.com. 23 January 2015. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  13. ↑ "Food supplier to create 50 jobs with new branch". Daily Echo. 20 October 2015. Archived from the original on 18 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  14. ↑ "Wolverhampton North East – 2015 election results". electionresults.parliament.uk. 8 May 2015. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "Shrewton Parish Council minutes - October 2019" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 July 2020.
  16. ↑ "Councillor details – Cllr Darren Henry". cms.wiltshire.gov.uk. Trowbridge: Wiltshire Council. 14 December 2019. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  17. ↑ "Councillor details – Cllr Darren Henry". cms.wiltshire.gov.uk. Trowbridge: Wiltshire Council. 12 July 2020. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  18. ↑ "Darren Henry - Police & Crime Commissioner Candidate Selection Meeting Information". YouTube. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020.
  19. ↑ Franklin, Dave (26 April 2019). "Jonathon Seed selected to stand in the Police & Crime Commissioner election next year". The Swindonian. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  20. ↑ "Coronavirus: Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner elections cancelled". Swindon Advertiser. 16 March 2020. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  21. ↑ Evelyn, Rupert (9 May 2021). "Exclusive investigation: PCC candidate disbarred over historic driving offence". ITV News. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  22. ↑ "Victoria Borwick: Ex-Boris deputy loses her bid to stand again as Tory MP in Kensington". Evening Standard. 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 1 December 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  23. ↑ "Darren Henry selected as Conservative candidate for Broxtowe". Conservative Home. 17 September 2019. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  24. ↑ "Tory candidate suggests food bank users can't 'manage their budgets' properly". The Independent. 8 December 2019. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  25. ↑ Webber, George Grylls, Esther. "Robert Jenrick ignored civil servants to spend Towns Fund millions on Tory marginals". Thetimes.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ↑ "Darren Henry MP makes Maiden Speech in the House of Commons This Afternoon". Bramcote Today. 25 June 2020. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  27. ↑ Toulson, Gemma (26 June 2020). "Notts MP proud to be first Tory MP of West Indian heritage". Nottingham Post. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  28. ↑ "Broxtowe MP Darren Henry makes Maiden Speech in the House of Commons". Darren Henry. 25 June 2020. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  29. ↑ "Darren Henry debate extracts from Windrush Lessons Learned Review (Tue 21st Jul 2020)". Parallelparliament.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  30. ↑ "Tweet". twitter.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  31. ↑ "Broxtowe MP apologises after claims employee 'intimidated' blogger". BBC News. 17 March 2021. Archived from the original on 17 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  32. ↑ Briefing: the cost of MPs in 2020-21 TaxPayers' Alliance, 20 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022
  33. ↑ Broxtowe MP Darren Henry named 'Britain's most expensive MP after £280,000 of expense claims' Nottinghamshire Live, 21 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022
  34. ↑ "The Tory MPS who have quit Boris Johnson's government – listed". TheGuardian.com. 7 July 2022.
  35. ↑ "Notts MP 'still supportive of Prime Minister'". 6 July 2022.
  36. ↑ "Caroline Henry: Notts Police and Crime Commissioner". carolinehenry.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  37. ↑ Gavin, Bevis; PA News (18 July 2022). "Caroline Henry: Driving ban for police boss caught speeding five times". BBC News.
  38. ↑ "Twins". darrenhenry.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
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