Joy Morrissey
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
Assumed office
14 November 2023
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Assistant Government Whip
In office
8 July 2022 – 14 November 2023
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Liz Truss
Rishi Sunak
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
In office
8 February 2022 – 8 July 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byAndrew Griffith
Sarah Dines
Succeeded byAlexander Stafford
Member of Parliament
for Beaconsfield
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byDominic Grieve
Majority15,712 (27.2%)
Ealing London Borough Councillor
for Hanger Hill
In office
22 May 2014 – 13 April 2020[1]
Personal details
Born
Joyce Rebekah Inboden

(1981-01-30) 30 January 1981
Indiana, US
Nationality
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Political partyConservative
Spouses
  • Matthew Mark Damschroder
    ​
    ​
    (m. 2001, divorced)​
  • William Morrissey
    ​
    (after 2001)​
Alma materLondon School of Economics
Websitejoymorrissey.uk

Joyce Rebekah "Joy" Morrissey (née Inboden, 30 January 1981)[2][3] is an American-born British politician who has served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire since 2019.[4][5] Morrissey has been a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury since November 2023.[6]

Morrissey grew up in the United States,[2] moving to the United Kingdom in 2008 to attend the London School of Economics.[7] Before doing so, in 1999 and 2000, Morrissey undertook humanitarian work in Albania, Kosovo, China and India, helping refugees, working in an orphanage and teaching English.[8] Before her election to Parliament she worked at the Centre for Social Justice,[9] as a Parliamentary staffer,[2] and was elected a Councillor in Ealing.[10]

Early life

Morrissey was born in Indiana, in the United States.[2] She attended Worthington Christian High School in Ohio and graduated in 1999.[11] Morrissey received a master's degree specialising in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics.[7] After completing her postgraduate studies, Morrissey attained British citizenship and is now a British-American dual national.[2]

Political career

London

Morrissey was an elected a Conservative councillor on Ealing Council, where she represented the ward of Hanger Hill (named after the area of the same name) until April 2020.[1]

She was a London-wide list candidate at the 2016 London Assembly election, but was not elected.[12]

Morrissey contested Ealing Central and Acton at the 2017 general election. The seat was one of a number in London which had been marginal before the election, but the seat saw a large swing towards the incumbent Labour MP Rupa Huq.[13][14]

In 2018, she sought nomination to be the London Conservatives mayoral candidate for the 2021 London mayoral election, making it through to the final three shortlist; Morrissey was ultimately not selected.[15]

Member of Parliament

In 2019, Morrissey was selected as the new Conservative candidate for Beaconsfield. At the 12 December election Morrissey defeated former Conservative Dominic Grieve, who had represented Beaconsfield since 1997 and contested the seat as an independent.[16][4] Upon election she became the third ever American-born female MP, after The Viscountess Astor and Beatrice Rathbone.

In 2020, Morrissey was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[17] In 2021, she was appointed PPS to the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab.[18] In 2022, she was appointed as a PPS to the Prime Minister, working alongside Lia Nici and James Duddridge.[19]

On 15 December 2021, Morrissey tweeted criticising the influence that unelected public health officials were able to exert on public policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that policy decisions should be made by those accountable to the public.[20][21]

Morrissey endorsed Liz Truss in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[22]

Morrissey was appointed Assistant Government Whip on 8 July 2022 by the outgoing Johnson administration.[23] On 8 September 2022 she was reappointed an Assistant Government Whip as part of the new Government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, one of very few people to make the transition from the Johnson to the Truss administration.[24] Joy Morrissey was one of the final ministerial appointments approved by Queen Elizabeth II.

On 27 October 2022 Morrissey was reappointed an Assistant Government Whip once again by her third Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.[25] She is one of only three MPs to be reappointed in three consecutive Conservative governments as a whip.

In June 2023, she was one of six Conservative MPs to vote against censuring Boris Johnson following the Commons Privileges Committee investigation.[26]

In November 2023, Morrissey celebrated the decision by the British government to block the development of a data centre on the site of a former quarry next to M25.[27]

Acting career

In the late 2000s, Morrissey had a brief acting career. Under the name Joy Boden she appeared alongside Marisa Tomei in a TV movie titled The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud, which she also produced, and which her now-husband directed. After becoming a mother, she decided not to return to the film industry, stating that she "actually looked at going back to get (her) PhD in International Development but got involved with the local Ealing Conservatives".[28]

Filmography

  • The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud (2007, TV movie)
  • Geek Mythology (2008, video)
  • Only One Can Play (2009, short film)

References

  1. 1 2 "Councillor Joy Morrissey". Ealing Council. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Election of Joy Morrissey keeps American headcount in UK Parliament at three". 28 February 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  3. ↑ 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. 94. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  4. 1 2 "Beaconsfield parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  5. ↑ Jones, Amy (9 November 2019). "Meet the Brexiteer candidate taking on Dominic Grieve in this general election". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  6. ↑ "Government Whip (Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  7. 1 2 "London mayoral race: Conservative candidate profiles". BBC News. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  8. ↑ "Morrissey, Joy". Mace Magazine. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  9. ↑ "Joy Morrissey MP – Who is she?". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  10. ↑ Leary, Gemma. "Council elections 22 May 2014". www.ealing.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  11. ↑ "Worthington Christian grad earns a spot in UK's House of Commons". Worthington Christian School. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  12. ↑ "London-wide Assembly Member candidates, 2016". 1 April 2016. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  13. ↑ "The career of Tory candidate Joy Morrissey in the spotlight". Ealing Today. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  14. ↑ "Ealing Central and Acton election results: Labour's Rupa Huq wins at General Election". Evening Standard. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  15. ↑ Proctor, Kate (28 September 2018). "Tories choose Shaun Bailey for mayoral candidate to take on Sadiq". Evening Standard. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  16. ↑ Lambert, Harry (11 December 2019). "A Tory rebel's last stand". NewStatesman. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  17. ↑ List of Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS): April 2020 (Report). GOV.UK. 9 April 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  18. ↑ "List of Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS): October 2020". GOV.UK. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  19. ↑ Folker, Robert (8 February 2022). "Joy Morrissey MP appointed Boris Johnson's Parliamentary Private Secretary". Bucks Free Press. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  20. ↑ Woodcock, Andrew (16 December 2021). "Demand for apology from Tory MP after 'outrageous' attack on Chris Whitty". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  21. ↑ Hall, Sam (16 December 2021). "Covid latest news: Tory MP attacks 'unelected' Chris Whitty over calls for Britons to scale back Christmas plans". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "Liz Truss backed as next Tory leader by 11 government whips in latest blow for rival Rishi Sunak". Sky News. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  23. ↑ "Joy Morrissey MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  24. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  25. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  26. ↑ Home, Conservative (20 June 2023). "The six Conservative MPs who voted against the motion to censure Johnson". Conservative Home. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  27. ↑ Silvester, Andy (6 November 2023). "'Deranged': Government blocks data centre build next to M25 - in case it ruins the green belt". CityAM.
  28. ↑ "London mayoral race: Conservative candidate profiles". BBC News. 30 July 2018.
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