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Maria Caulfield

Maria Colette Caulfield (born 6 August 1973) is a former British politician. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women from October 2022[1][2] to July 2024.

Maria Caulfield
Official portrait, 2017
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy
In office
27 October 2022 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byCaroline Johnson[a]
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women
In office
27 October 2022 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byKatherine Fletcher
Succeeded byAnneliese Dodds (Women and Equalities)
Minister of State for Health
In office
7 July 2022 – 7 September 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byEdward Argar
Succeeded byWill Quince
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety and Primary Care
In office
17 September 2021 – 7 July 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byJo Churchill
Succeeded byJames Morris
Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Women
In office
8 January 2018 – 10 July 2018
LeaderTheresa May
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byHelen Whately
Member of Parliament
for Lewes
In office
7 May 2015 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byNorman Baker
Succeeded byJames MacCleary
Personal details
Born
Maria Colette Caulfield

(1973-08-06) 6 August 1973 (age 51)
London, England
Political partyConservative
WebsiteOfficial website

She served as Minister of State for Health from July to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes from 2015 to 2024.

Early life and career

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Maria Caulfield was born on 6 August 1973 to Irish immigrant parents and grew up in a working class area of Wandsworth, London. Her father was from a farming family, but after emigration worked as a builder, while her mother was a nurse.[3]

While Caulfield was in her teens, her mother died from breast cancer.[3] After leaving school Caulfield became an NHS nurse.[4][5] She has spoken about her upbringing saying that she "grew up in a run-down area of South London where the only careers advice given to us was the phone number of the local council housing office for when you became a single mum and needed a council flat."[5]

As a nurse, she eventually specialised in cancer research and moved to the south coast of England, where she worked at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital and then the Royal Marsden. Her career in the NHS lasted over 20 years.[6] She became involved with the Conservative Party after joining a campaign to save local hospitals in the Brighton area.[5]

Political career

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Before Parliament

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In the 2007 Brighton and Hove City Council election, Caulfield stood as a Conservative Party candidate and became a member of the local city council for the previously safe Labour ward of Moulsecoomb - winning by just one vote. She served in the cabinet of the then Conservative authority and held the Housing Portfolio. In the following 2011 local election she lost her seat to the Labour candidate by over 600 votes.[7]

At the 2010 general election, Caulfield unsuccessfully stood[8] in Caerphilly, coming second with 17.1% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Wayne David.[9][10] She had been shortlisted for the position of Conservative Party candidate for Gosport in the previous year. She received criticism from local political rivals for both campaigns on the grounds that her focus should be on her council work in Brighton.[11][12]

For several years, she held the role of deputy regional chairman for the South East Conservatives[13] and was a co-ordinator in the NO2AV campaign in the 2011 AV referendum.

Parliamentary Career

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In 2013, Caulfield was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Lewes by the Lewes Conservative Association.[5] At the 2015 general election, Caulfield was elected to Parliament as MP for Lewes, winning with 38% of the vote and a majority of 1,083.[14][15]

Caulfield backed Brexit during the 2016 EU membership referendum.[16]

At the snap 2017 general election, Caulfield was re-elected as MP for Lewes with an increased vote share of 49.5% and an increased majority of 5,508.

In September 2017, she faced criticism after she hosted a Parliamentary event with the Royal College of Nursing to gain support for scrapping the below-inflation cap on nurses pay but did not take part in a parliamentary debate on this. Defending her position, Caulfield argued the only way to lift the nurses' pay cap would be during a meaningful budget vote.[17]

On 8 January 2018, Caulfield was appointed vice-chair of the Conservative Party for Women; the appointment was criticised by women's rights groups, including the Women's Equality Party, because she had opposed a Ten Minute Rule bill in March 2017 which sought to allow abortion to term and for voting in 2015 with the government to oppose the removal of the so-called tampon tax levied on female sanitary products as the UK could not zero-rate VAT on these products while a member of the EU.[18] She resigned from this position on 10 July 2018 in protest at the Brexit strategy of the Prime Minister, Theresa May.[19]

In the House of Commons Caulfield sat on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the Women and Equalities Committee and the Committee on Exiting the European Union until becoming a Government whip in 2019.[20]

Caulfield employed her husband as her office manager. The practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the grounds that it promotes nepotism.[21][22] Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Caulfield's employment of her husband was lawful.[23]

On 1 August 2019, Caulfield was made Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps as part of a government reshuffle.[24]

In October 2019, Caulfield signed a letter to The Guardian pledging climate action.[25] Caulfield also supported plans for a Green Brexit, by enhancing environmental protections after the UK left the European Union.[26]

Caulfield was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 47.9% and a decreased majority of 2,457.[27]

In March 2020, Caulfield announced that whilst continuing to fulfill her parliamentary duties, she would be answering the UK government's call for former doctors and nurses to volunteer in order to help the NHS deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.[28][29]

In May 2020, Caulfield shared a 22-second video clip from her Twitter account which had been doctored to depict the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, apparently giving reasons as to why he, as the Director of Public Prosecutions, had not prosecuted grooming gangs. She accompanied the tweet with the words: "True face of the Labour leader #shameful".[30] In fact, Starmer had been answering a question about what the "wrong approach" was and why historic child sexual abuse allegations had been ignored for decades by the authorities. The doctored video came from a Twitter account that had spread far-right and anti-Islam views, which was subsequently suspended. A Downing Street spokesman said: "These tweets have rightly been deleted. The MPs involved have been spoken to by the Whips' Office and reminded of their responsibility to check the validity of information before they post on social media sites."[31][32] Caulfield later apologised.[33]

In May 2024, Caulfield was called upon by opposition MPs, including Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper, to refer herself to the government's ethics advisor for having spread the '15-minute cities' conspiracy theory in publications she had sent out to her constituents.[34] The '15-minute cities' conspiracy theory was one of eight included in a guide to MPs published by Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt in May 2024. The guide stated that the conspiracy theories 'can pose a danger to democracy'.[35]

Ministerial career

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On 17 September 2021, Caulfield was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety and Primary Care in the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.[36]

On 7 July 2022, she was appointed Minister of State in the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the caretaker cabinet installed by outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[37]

Return to backbenches

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Caulfield with Prime Minister Sunak in 2024

On 7 September 2022 following the appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister and the subsequent formation of her ministry, Caulfield was dismissed from her role in Government and returned to the backbenches.

Caulfield is a former board member of Blue Collar Conservativism.[38]

In October 2022, when Caulfield was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women, the appointment was criticised by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service because she had voted against buffer zones outside abortion clinics and against legalising abortion in Northern Ireland. She has said that protesters outside abortion clinics might be there in order "to comfort" those entering the clinic.[39][40]

Caulfield lost her seat in the 2024 United Kingdom general election, coming second to Liberal Democrat James MacCleary. She won 26.8% of votes cast, compared to 47.9% in 2019.

Personal life

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Caulfield lives with her husband Steve Bell, an ex-serviceman and former builder, who works as her office manager. He was a Brighton and Hove City Councillor until his defeat in 2023,[41] as well as being active in the voluntary party, and was President (2015–16) of the Conservative National Convention, the organizing body of the voluntary party.[42] She is also a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship.[43][44]

Caulfield is an urban shepherdess, part of an environmental project which uses sheep and cattle to graze public open spaces.[45] She previously held a non-executive director position on the board of the housing charity BHT Sussex.[45][46] She supports Arsenal[47] and Lewes football clubs, and is a shareholder of the latter.[48]

A practising Roman Catholic,[43][49] Caulfield supports lowering the current abortion time limit.[50][51] She reports that (at some point prior to July 2022) she suffered a stroke.[52]

Notes

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  1. ^ As Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Public Health.

References

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  1. ^ "Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Britain in the World". theyworkforyou.com. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Five Nurses take seats in the House of Commons". NursingNotes. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d "Maria Caulfield adopted as Conservative candidate for Lewes". Conservativehome.com. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  6. ^ "House of Commons, Ambulance Services Urgent Question (@ 5min 32sec)". bbc.co.uk. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Brighton Council Election Results 1996-2011" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  8. ^ Isaby, Jonathan (21 December 2009). "ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Maria Caulfield selected for Caerphilly". Conservativehome.blogs.com. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Election 2010 | Constituency | Caerphilly". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  10. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Row over valleys candidate's home". BBC News. 21 April 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  12. ^ "Brighton and Hove councillor in running to replace Gosport MP". Brighton Argus. 5 November 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  13. ^ "Former Brighton councillor to challenge Norman Baker for Lewes seat in Parliament". Brightonandhovenews.org. 9 December 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  14. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Lewes parliamentary constituency - Election 2015". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  16. ^ "Maria Caulfield will vote to leave the European Union in referendum". The Argus. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  17. ^ "Tory under fire over stance on nurses' pay". Brighton Argus. 8 September 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  18. ^ "Maria Caulfield: MP's new women's role sparks backlash". BBC News Online. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  19. ^ "Tory vice-chairs quit over PM's Brexit plan". BBC News. 10 July 2018.
  20. ^ "Maria Caulfield". Parliament UK. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  21. ^ "One in five MPs employs a family member: the full list revealed". The Daily Telegraph. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  22. ^ Mason, Rowena (29 June 2015). "Keeping it in the family: new MPs continue to hire relatives as staff". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  23. ^ "MPs banned from employing spouses after election in expenses crackdown". London Evening Standard. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  24. ^ "Department for Transport role for Lewes MP". Sussex Express. 5 August 2019. Archived from the original on 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  25. ^ Letters (17 October 2019). "We are proud of the Conservative record on climate action | Letter from 36 MPs". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  26. ^ "Environment Bill". Maria Caulfield. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  27. ^ "Lewes Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  28. ^ "Coronavirus: 'Your NHS needs you' – Thousands of retired doctors and nurses urged to return". Sky News. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  29. ^ "Coronavirus: Lewes MP Maria Caulfield returns to nursing". BBC News. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  30. ^ Walker, Peter; Morris, Steven (14 May 2020). "No 10 rebukes Tory MPs over misleading Keir Starmer video". The Guardian.
  31. ^ "Minister Nadine Dorries accused of spreading 'fake news' about Labour leader". BBC News. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  32. ^ "Tory MPs including health minister share edited 'far-right' video smearing Keir Starmer". The Independent. 14 May 2020.
  33. ^ "Statement on Recent Twitter Post". Maria Caulfield. 15 May 2020.
  34. ^ "Health minister in ethics row over claims about 15-minute cities". 14 May 2024.
  35. ^ "MPs given guide to spotting conspiracy theories". BBC News. 14 May 2024.
  36. ^ "Ministerial appointments: September 2021". 16 September 2021.
  37. ^ "Ministerial appointments: July 2022". GOV.UK. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  38. ^ "People". Blue Collar Conservatism. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  39. ^ Murray, Jessica (30 October 2022). "Tory MP who backed cutting abortion time limit named minister for women". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  40. ^ "Abortion clinic protesters may want to 'comfort' people, claims minister". The Guardian. 31 October 2022.
  41. ^ "Brighton & Hove City Council election". Brighton-hove.gov.uk. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  42. ^ "Steve Bell profile". Stevebellconservative.com. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  43. ^ a b "Sussex falls to Tory steamroller". heartpublications.co.uk. 29 May 2015.
  44. ^ "Conservative Christian Fellowship". Christian-conservatives.org.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  45. ^ a b "Board of Management". Bht.org.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  46. ^ "About Maria Caulfield". Maria Caulfield. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  47. ^ "Politicshome". Politicshome website. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  48. ^ "about Maria Caulfield". About Maria Caulfield.
  49. ^ "Fall in number of Catholic MPs in the House of Commons ahead of landmark debate on assisted dying". www.thetablet.co.uk. 27 August 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  50. ^ "General Election 2015 | LIFE in Surrey and Sussex". Life Charity. 27 March 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  51. ^ "Where Do They Stand?". Wheredotheystand.org.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  52. ^ "House of Commons, Ambulance Services Urgent Question (@ 21min 33sec)". bbc.co.uk. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
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