Lia Nici | |
---|---|
Assistant Government Whip | |
In office 20 September 2022 –27 October 2022 | |
Prime Minister | Liz Truss |
Preceded by | Alex Chalk |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up,The Union and Constitution | |
In office 8 July 2022 –20 September 2022 | |
Prime Minister | Boris Johnson |
Preceded by | Neil O'Brien |
Succeeded by | Dehenna Davison |
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister | |
In office 8 February 2022 –8 July 2022 | |
Prime Minister | Boris Johnson |
Preceded by | Andrew Griffith Sarah Dines |
Succeeded by | Alexander Stafford |
Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby | |
Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |
Preceded by | Melanie Onn |
Majority | 7,331 (22.2%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Grimsby,Lincolnshire,England | 1 August 1969
Political party | Conservative |
Website | lianici |
Lia Nici-Townend [1] [2] (born 1 August 1969) [3] is a British Conservative Party politician. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby since the 2019 general election. [4] She served as an Assistant Government Whip from September to October 2022. [5] [6]
Her father Romualdo Nici was from Pisa in Italy,and ran an Italian restaurant in Cleethorpes. [7] [8] [9] [10] Her mother was a policewoman in the Grimsby area and later a social worker. [11] [12]
Nici attended Healing School and entered sixth form. She took an art foundation course at Grimsby College,later taking an HND in writing and design.[ citation needed ]
Nici was a college lecturer for 20 years, [13] including in the media studies department at what is now the Grimsby Institute,a further education college. She was head of East Coast Media at the institute from 2004.
She was the executive producer of Estuary TV,a Grimsby-based community interest company (CIC),from 2013 until the company was dissolved. [14] Following its dissolution,she continued to act as CEO of Estuary TV (now a department of the institute,who had owned and dissolved the CIC). Nici has listed herself as having been self-employed since September 2018. [14]
Nici voted for the UK to remain in the EU in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. [15] She subsequently became a supporter of leaving the EU and supported her party's approach to the exit process. [16] In December 2019,she stated that the reason the UK had not left the EU was "a failure of people who live in northern towns like Grimsby who have Labour MPs who have consistently voted against the democratic vote in their constituencies." [17]
After failing to be selected as parliamentary candidate in Great Grimsby [18] and Scunthorpe, [2] Nici stood as the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Kingston upon Hull North in 2017,losing to sitting Labour MP Diana Johnson by 14,322 votes. [19]
In May 2018,Nici was elected as a councillor for the Scartho ward of North East Lincolnshire Council. [13] In August 2019,she was selected as the Conservative candidate for Great Grimsby for the 2019 snap general election. [20] She won the seat with 54.9% of the vote and a margin of 7,331 votes over Labour,who had held the seat for 74 years;defeating the sitting Labour MP Melanie Onn,who had represented Great Grimsby since Austin Mitchell's retirement in 2015. [4]
In March 2020,Nici became a member of the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons. [21]
In May 2020,Nici supported Prime Minister Boris Johnson's refusal to take action against his chief adviser Dominic Cummings after the latter breached COVID-19 lockdown regulations,maintaining only that it was possible "he may have committed a minor breach",and should have apologised. [22]
In August 2020,Nici was one of 25 Conservative MPs and peers to sign a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel urging "stronger enforcement" against people crossing the English Channel in small boats,considering it to be "strikingly clear that,rather than a 'hostile environment',invading migrants have been welcomed". [23] [ failed verification ]
In October 2020,Nici was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Department for Digital,Culture,Media and Sport,making her part of the payroll vote.[ citation needed ] Later that month,however,after being absent from voting on a Labour motion calling for the extension of free school meals into the school holidays,Nici said that she would have voted against the government had she been present. [24]
During the United Kingdom's second national lockdown in November 2020,Nici self-isolated after attending a meeting in 10 Downing Street with the prime minister and several other Conservative MPs including Lee Anderson,who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. [25] Despite being pictured in close proximity with the prime minister,indoors and without a mask,Nici maintained that "we did everything we can" to remain safe. [26] [ better source needed ]
In March 2021,Nici used Twitter to suggest that people who "are not proud to be British,or of our flag or Queen [...] should move to another country". [27] Following criticism,she refused to apologise for her comments,saying that "the flag and the Queen are big parts of life in this country,so if you dislike it,you can happily move elsewhere". [28]
In a September 2021 interview with YouTuber Mahyar Tousi,Nici expressed her belief that "there are some very sinister,extreme left-wing things going on in our country and they're trying to lobby government and companies". [29]
In December 2021,amid the Westminster lockdown parties controversy,Nici maintained that Johnson's moral authority had not been lost, [30] and expressed her displeasure with whistleblowers who had brought attention to the matter,declaring that they "should be ashamed". [31] Following Johnson's subsequent admission that he had attended a Downing Street garden party during the United Kingdom's first national lockdown,Nici defended him,stating that "nobody is perfect. The prime minister is a good man who wants to do the right thing for the UK and Grimsby." [32] The following day,she asserted her belief that both the party and the leaks surrounding it were part of a plot against the prime minister by civil servants who did not want the United Kingdom to leave the EU. [33]
In February 2022,Nici defended Johnson after his false claim that Keir Starmer was responsible for the failure of the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute Jimmy Savile,alleging that the purported link between the two was "the number one issue for local people on social media" in the week before Johnson raised it in his response to the Sue Gray investigation into lockdown parties within government. [34] The following week,Nici was appointed as a parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister. [35]
In the 2022 vote of confidence in the Conservative Party leadership of Boris Johnson,Nici voted in favour of the Prime Minister. She later continued to openly support Johnson in the subsequent weeks up to his eventual resignation of the Conservative Party on 7 July. The day after Johnson's resignation,she was appointed as a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Levelling Up in his lame duck government,pending the election of a new Conservative leader. [36] On 10 July she repeated on the BBC allegations that Labour MP Angela Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract male MPs,an allegation originally made by an unnamed Conservative politician to the Mail on Sunday newspaper in April 2022. At the time Boris Johnson described the story about Rayner as "the most appalling load of sexist,misogynist tripe". [37] On 19 June 2023,Nici abstained in the Commons vote to approve the Privileges Committee's report,which had found that Boris Johnson misled the House.
Caroline Louise Flint is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party,she attended the Cabinet as Minister for Housing and Planning in 2008 and Minister for Europe from 2008 to 2009.
Esther Louise Mcvey,Lady Davies,is a British politician and television presenter serving as Minister of State without Portfolio since 2023. A member of the Conservative Party,she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton since the 2017 general election,having previously been the MP for Wirral West from 2010 to 2015. She previously served in cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2018 and Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2019 to 2020.
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson is a British Conservative Party politician and consultant paediatrician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health from September to October 2022. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sleaford and North Hykeham since the 2016 by-election.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
Angela Rayner is a British politician serving as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up,Housing and Communities since 2023. Rayner has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She ideologically identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani is a British Conservative Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wealden in East Sussex since 2015. She currently serves as Minister of State for Europe since 26 March 2024. She has previously served as Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security and Minister of State for the Investment Security Unit. In January 2018,she became the first female Muslim minister to speak from the House of Commons despatch box.
Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Indo-Pacific under Rishi Sunak since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party,she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 2015. She previously served in the Cabinets of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Melanie Onn is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party,she previously served as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from September 2015 to June 2016 and Shadow Minister for Housing from July 2017 to March 2019. At the 2019 general election,she lost the seat to the Conservative candidate Lia Nici-Townend.
Douglas Gordon Ross is a Scottish politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party since 2020 and Leader of the Opposition in Scotland since 2021. He has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Moray since 2017. In addition to his seat in Westminster,he serves as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands,having been elected as a regional list MSP in 2021. He was previously MSP for the region from 2016 to 2017.
Sir Simon Richard Clarke is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland since 2017. A member of the Conservative Party,he briefly served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up,Housing and Communities from September to October 2022 and Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2021 to 2022.
Joyce Rebekah "Joy" Morrissey is an American-born British politician who has served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire since 2019. Morrissey has been a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury since November 2023.
Boris Johnson's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 24 July 2019 when he accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government,succeeding Theresa May,and ended on 6 September 2022 upon his resignation. As prime minister,Johnson served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. He also served as Minister for the Union,a position created by him to be held by the prime minister. Johnson's premiership was dominated by Brexit,the COVID-19 pandemic,the Russian invasion of Ukraine,and the cost of living crisis. His tenure was also characterised by several political controversies and scandals,being viewed as the most scandalous premiership of modern times by historians and biographers.
Dehenna Sheridan Davison is a British Conservative Party politician and former broadcaster. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishop Auckland since the 2019 general election. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up between September 2022 and September 2023.
Gary William Sambrook is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Joint Executive Secretary of the backbench 1922 Committee since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield since the 2019 general election.
Jane Marion Hunt is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough in Leicestershire since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party,she briefly served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business,Consumers and Labour Markets from July to September 2022 under Prime Minister Boris Johnson following the July 2022 government crisis.
Partygate is a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021,when public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings. The scandal contributed to Boris Johnson's downfall as Prime Minister and his resignation as an MP.
The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,following a series of political controversies.
On 6 June 2022,a vote of confidence was held amongst Conservative Party MPs on the prime minister,Boris Johnson's,leadership of their party. Johnson won the vote with the support of 211 Conservative members of Parliament,58.8% of the total. Out of 359 MPs,148 (41.2%) voted against him.
In early July 2022,62 of the United Kingdom's 179 government ministers,parliamentary private secretaries,trade envoys,and party vice-chairmen resigned from their positions in the second administration formed by Boris Johnson as Prime Minister,culminating in Johnson's resignation on 7 July. Johnson's premiership had been considered in danger for months after several scandals,but it was the Chris Pincher scandal that was identified to have spurred on the resignations. Considered the "last straw" for the Prime Minister,the scandal arose after it was revealed that Johnson had promoted his Deputy Chief Government Whip Chris Pincher,who was publicly facing multiple allegations of sexual assault,to the position despite knowing of the allegations beforehand.