Colonel
James Sunderland
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Member of Parliament
for Bracknell
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byPhillip Lee
Majority19,829 (36.5%)
Personal details
Born (1970-06-06) 6 June 1970
Chertsey, Surrey, England
Political partyConservative
Websitejamessunderland.org.uk
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service British Army
Years of service1993–2019
Rank Colonel
Battles/warsIraq War
War in Afghanistan

James Sunderland (born 6 June 1970)[1] is a British politician and former military officer who is currently serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for Bracknell since 2019. He is a member of the Conservative Party.

Early and personal life

Sunderland was educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford, before earning a bachelor’s degree with honours at the University of Birmingham. He then earned a master’s degree from King’s College London before attending the Defence Academy.[2]

He was commissioned into the British Army from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1993 and served for 26 years before retiring in November 2019 with the rank of Colonel.[3]

Sunderland is married. [4]

Political career

In November 2019, Sunderland stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Bracknell and was selected.[4] He won the seat at the 2019 general election, replacing Phillip Lee, who had defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.[5]

Since becoming an MP Sunderland has become a member of the following All-Party Parliamentary Groups:[6]

  • Chair: Armed Forces Covenant, Motorsport, Veterans
  • Vice-Chair: British Overseas Territories, South Atlantic, South Western Railway, Special Needs Education, Turks and Caicos Islands
  • Member: Armed Forces, Homelessness, International Trade, Loan Charge (IR35), Motor Neurone Disease, Western Rail Link to London Heathrow.

Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Sunderland was among the signatories of a letter to The Telegraph in November 2020 from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[7]

In March 2021 Sunderland was elected the chairman of the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee.[8]

He responded to claims that the Boundary Commission charged with redistricting the Bracknell Constituency purposefully redrew the maps to aid Conservatives by saying "I am comfortable that fairness has been employed and that the fundamental principles that underpin it have been robustly honoured."[9]

In the Government reshuffle of September 2021, Sunderland received his first official appointment, as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the ministerial team at the Ministry of Defence. On 13 June 2022, he was moved to the role of PPS to George Eustice, the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.[10] He resigned from this position on 6 July 2022, in protest at Boris Johnson's conduct in the Chris Pincher scandal.[11]

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. 116. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  2. ↑ "About James | James Sunderland MP | Member of Parliament for Bracknell". www.jamessunderland.org.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  3. ↑ "About James | James Sunderland MP | Member of Parliament for Bracknell". www.jamessunderland.org.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  4. 1 2 "About James | James Sunderland MP | Member of Parliament for Bracknell". jamessunderland.org.uk. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  5. ↑ Knight, Alice (13 December 2019). "Bracknell general election results: Conservative candidate James Sunderland wins seat". Bracknell News. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  6. ↑ "Register of All-Party Parliamentary Groups" (PDF). parliament.uk. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  7. ↑ "Britain's heroes". Letter to the Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ↑ "Committees". Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  9. ↑ "Letter: MP rebuffs claims Tories have rigged the nation's new political map". Reading Chronicle. 20 June 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  10. ↑ Heale, James [@JAHeale] (13 June 2022). "Some PPS changes for rising Tory stars: -Rob Butler to Liz Truss -Selaine Saxby to Simon Clarke -James Sunderland to George Eustice" (Tweet). Retrieved 14 June 2022 – via Twitter.
  11. ↑ Young, Brad. "Bracknell MP resigns from Johnson's Government". Bracknell News. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.