Mark Jenkinson | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Assistant Government Whip | |
| Assumed office 14 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
| In office 20 September 2022 – 27 October 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Liz Truss |
| Member of Parliament for Workington | |
| Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Sue Hayman |
| Majority | 4,176 (10.0%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 January 1982 Whitehaven, Cumbria, England |
| Political party | Conservative (before 2012, 2016–) |
| Other political affiliations | UKIP (before 2016) |
| Children | 4 |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Website | www |
Mark Ian Jenkinson (born 28 January 1982) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Workington since 2019.[1][2]
Jenkinson was born in Whitehaven[3] and raised in Workington. He was educated at St Joseph's Catholic High School, Workington and Newton Rigg College, Penrith, where he pursued agricultural studies, before joining British Steel as an apprentice.
Prior to becoming an MP, he worked as a self-employed contractor in the nuclear supply chain.[4]
Jenkinson was the UK Independence Party candidate for Workington in 2015,[5] having previously been a member of the Conservative Party.[6] He was a founding member of UKIP's West Cumbria branch but quit in 2016, citing disagreements about the party's approach to the EU referendum and concerns over internal democracy.[7]
After rejoining the Conservative Party, Jenkinson was elected in 2015 for the Seaton and Northside Ward of Allerdale Borough Council, where he became deputy leader in 2019.[8] He was also chairman of Seaton Parish Council but stood down after being elected as MP.[9]
Jenkinson was elected to the House of Commons in the 2019 general election, defeating Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman with a majority of 4,136 votes.[10] Following his victory, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage congratulated Jenkinson on Twitter, writing "A personal congratulations to Mark Jenkinson. He was an excellent UKIP candidate in 2015."[11]
Jenkinson's win marked the first time since the 1970s that Workington had elected a Conservative MP.[12] Until then, the Labour Party had won the seat in every general election since 1979. The Conservatives had only been elected once in Workington since World War II, at a 1976 by-election.[13] The constituency was seen as symbolic at the 2019 election, with a political think tank coining the term 'Workington Man' to represent the type of swing voter the Conservatives needed to win from Labour.[14]
In October 2020, Jenkinson was criticised by Labour MP Jess Phillips after he stated that in his constituency in a "tiny" minority of cases "food parcels are sold or traded for drugs".[15]
In February 2021, Jenkinson came out in defence of the decision to build a coal mine in West Cumbria, when the decision was overturned by Cumbria County Council.[16] The Guardian reported in March 2021 that Jenkinson was one of a number of Conservative backbench MPs on a potential collision course with the prime minister Boris Johnson over the decision to put a hold on plans to create a controversial new coal mine in Cumbria.[17] The mine was approved on 7 December 2022.[18]
Jenkinson was elected to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee in March 2020, serving until October 2022.[19] He returned to the committee on 8 November 2022.[20] In June 2023, changes were made to Select Committees to mirror the changes in departmental names and responsibilities. Jenkinson move to the new Energy Security and Net Zero Committee.[21]
In February 2022, Jenkinson was made parliamentary private secretary for DEFRA.[22]
From September 2022 to October 2022 he was an Assistant Government Whip.[23][24]
In December 2022, he joined the Women and Equalities Committee.[25]
He was made parliamentary private secretary to the Scotland Office in February 2023.[4][26]
He serves as the Vice-Chair of the Conservative backbench Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee; as a Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Upland Farming, a Vice-Chair of the APPG Nuclear and as Treasurer of the APPG Cyprus.[27]
Jenkinson was one of 10 parliamentarians personally named in a Commons Select Committee of Privileges special report on the "Co-ordinated campaign of interference in the work of the Privileges Committee", published 28 June 2023. The report detailed how said parliamentarians "took it upon themselves to undermine procedures of the House of Commons" by putting pressure on the Commons Privileges Committee investigation into Boris Johnson.[28] Jenkinson maintains that the tweet referenced in the report as evidence, was not about the committee.[29]
On 4 February 2023, Jenkinson announced that he had been selected by Conservative Party members for Penrith and Solway, which is considered to be a safer seat.[30]
Responding to Essex Police marking Transgender Day of Remembrance, Jenkinson questioned whether they had planning permission for the flag they were flying.[31]
Writing on the website Conservative Home in November 2021, he said that erasing the notion of biological sex would cause harm to women and the "LGB community". He criticised the UK's gender recognition system and expressed concern that the proposed Gender Conversion Therapy Bill would see practitioners and parents who did not affirm their child's chosen gender convicted, writing that "we can't put male-bodied rapists in female prisons can we?"[32]
Jenkinson has expressed his belief that transgender men are not men and transgender women are not women; in a 2022 tweet Jenkinson said "I don't get to call myself a chicken if I cover myself in feathers". In 2023, he criticised Scotland's gender recognition reforms, describing them as "terrifying".[33][34]
Jenkinson is married to Dawn and has four children. They live in the village of Seaton in Workington.[4] He is a former smoker[35] and is teetotal.[36]
