The Right Honourable
Nigel Evans
MP
Official portrait, 2017
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means
Assumed office
8 January 2020
SpeakerLindsay Hoyle
Preceded byRosie Winterton
Executive Secretary of the 1922 Committee
In office
11 October 2017 (2017-10-11) – 8 January 2020
Serving with Bob Blackman
LeaderTheresa May
Boris Johnson
Preceded byPeter Bone &
Christopher Chope
Succeeded byGary Sambrook
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means
In office
8 June 2010 – 10 September 2013
SpeakerJohn Bercow
Preceded bySylvia Heal
Succeeded byEleanor Laing
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
In office
11 June 2001 – 11 November 2003
LeaderWilliam Hague
Iain Duncan Smith
Michael Howard
Preceded byAngela Browning
Succeeded byBill Wiggin
Member of Parliament
for Ribble Valley
Assumed office
9 April 1992
Preceded byMichael Carr
Majority18,439 (33.4%)
Personal details
Born
Nigel Martin Evans

(1957-11-10) 10 November 1957
Swansea, Wales
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative (until 2013, 2014–present)
Independent (2013–2014)
Alma materSwansea University
WebsiteOfficial website

Nigel Martin Evans MP (born 10 November 1957) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ribble Valley constituency in Lancashire since 1992. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Joint Executive Secretary of the 1922 Committee from 2017 to 2019. He served as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, one of the Speaker's three deputies, from 2010 to 2013. He was elected as Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means in 2020.

He is a strong critic of the European Union and supported Brexit in the 2016 EU Referendum. He has since been supportive of Leave Means Leave, a Eurosceptic campaign group[1] and backed Boris Johnson for Prime Minister.[2] He has however since refrained from campaigning on issues such as Brexit in order to fulfill his role as one of the deputy speakers.

Early life

Evans was born on 10 November 1957 in Swansea. He was educated locally at the Dynevor School, and at University College of Swansea, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics in 1979. He was involved in the management of his family's newsagent's and convenience store in Swansea.[3]

Political career

In 1985, Evans was elected as a councillor to the West Glamorgan County Council. In 1990, he became the deputy Conservative group leader, before standing down as a councillor in 1991. He contested Swansea West at the general election of 1987, but was defeated by former minister Alan Williams by 7,062 votes. He was selected to contest the 1989 Pontypridd by-election in Pontypridd, following the death of Brynmor John, the seat's Labour MP. Evans was defeated by Kim Howells by 10,794 votes.

He fought his third election in the same parliament when he was selected to contest the normally "safe" Conservative seat of Ribble Valley, in the by-election caused by the resignation of David Waddington to become the Leader of the House of Lords in 1990. Evans was again defeated on 7 March 1991, when Mike Carr gained the seat for the Liberal Democrats by 4,601 votes.

Evans won Ribble Valley from the Liberal Democrats at the general election of 1992, defeating Carr by 6,542 votes, and has remained the constituency's MP since then. He made his maiden speech on 20 May 1992.[4]

He was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Employment David Hunt in 1993, and remained Hunt's PPS when he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1994. In 1995, Evans became the PPS to Tony Baldry the Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1995, and in 1996, he became the PPS to the new Secretary of State for Wales William Hague.

With the Conservative Party not winning a single seat in Wales at the general election of 1997, Evans was drafted onto the frontbench by former prime minister John Major as a spokesman on Welsh Affairs. He became a member of the Shadow Cabinet under Iain Duncan Smith as the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales from 2001 to 2003. He had publicly criticised the government for not having a dedicated Secretary of State for Wales in a cabinet post, so when the new Conservative leader Michael Howard decided to take the role outside of the Shadow Cabinet, Evans chose to return to the backbenches.

He became a member of both the Trade and Industry and the Welsh Affairs Select committees in 2003. In November 2004, Evans was appointed a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, with specific responsibility for overseeing Conservatives Abroad and mobilising the Conservative vote overseas. He returned to the back benches on the election of David Cameron as party leader in 2005, deciding to dedicate more time to his work on the Council of Europe and Western European Union. He has been a member of the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee since the general election of 2005.

In November 2009, Evans was ranked as the 570th most expensive MP out of the 646 MPs in the UK Parliament, based on his expenses claims.[5] Criticism was drawn over his £375 a month expense on phone bills, and his purchase of four digital cameras in 18 months.[6] Evans later attracted criticism for saying that he struggled to live on his salary of over £64,000 per year. He responded by saying that the comments were made in jest.[7]

On 8 June 2010, Evans was elected First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. This was the first time the three Deputy Speakers had been elected by secret ballot of all MPs.[8] Evans supported Brexit in the 2016 European Union referendum.[9]

Evans is a supporter of the proposal to make 23 June a public holiday in the United Kingdom, to be known as British Independence Day.[10] Following a Parliamentary debate on the topic, the announcement from the UK government in October 2016 to not proceed with the holiday at present, he said it was "a shame the government has made this decision, this is an absolute belter of an idea."[11]

On 8 January 2020, he was elected as Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means by the MPs.[12]

Arrest and trial

On 4 May 2013, Evans was arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault.[13] His trial began on 10 March 2014.[14] He was acquitted of all charges on 10 April 2014.[15] In 2012, he had supported cuts to legal aid which became part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO); after losing his life savings defending himself in 2014, Evans said in 2018 that the experience had shown him that "It's wrong, completely wrong, to remove people's right to have expert legal representation ... We're definitely talking about justice being denied as a result of LASPO."[16] Hannah Quirk, a criminal law lecturer at King's College London, referred to him as a victim of the so-called 'innocence tax'.[17]

Personal life

On 18 December 2010, following the death of his 86-year-old mother, Evans revealed to The Mail on Sunday that he was gay. He lives in Pendleton, Lancashire, a village in his constituency.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "Co-Chairmen - Political Advisory Board - Supporters". Leave Means Leave. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  2. ↑ Evans, Nigel (23 July 2019). ""Boris is the right man for the job"". Nigel Evans MP. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  3. ↑ Evans, Nigel. "About Nigel". Nigel Evans MP. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  4. ↑ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 20 May 1992". Publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ "Nigel Evans MP Expenses Rankings". Nigel Evans MP Office. 25 November 2009.
  6. ↑ Owen, Paul (13 July 2009). "MPs' expenses: Conservative charged £375 a month for mobile phone bills". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  7. ↑ "Nigel Evans caught up in expenses film row". Lancashire Telegraph. 13 August 2009. Archived from the original on 14 August 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
  8. ↑ Commons roles for two Lancashire MPs (From This Is Lancashire) Archived 11 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Thisislancashire.co.uk (8 June 2010). Retrieved on 18 December 2010.
  9. ↑ "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence? - Coffee House". The Spectator. 16 February 2016. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  10. ↑ "Who fancies a Brexit bank holiday? One East Lancashire MP does". The Press (York). 2 November 2016. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "Tory MP calls for 'Independence Day' Brexit bank holiday". The Daily Telegraph. 25 October 2016. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  12. ↑ "Three deputy Speakers elected for Commons". BBC News. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  13. ↑ Barrett, David; Watts, Robert (4 May 2013). "Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans arrested on suspicion of rape". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  14. ↑ "Nigel Evans MP: Sex charges trial starts for former deputy speaker". BBC News. 10 March 2014. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  15. ↑ "MP Nigel Evans cleared of sexual assaults". BBC News. 10 April 2014. Archived from the original on 3 November 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Amelia Hill and Owen Bowcott (27 December 2018). "'It's completely wrong': falsely accused Tory MP attacks legal aid cuts". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  17. ↑ "Man cleared over Tamara Ecclestone burglary 'now homeless'". BBC News. 10 February 2021.
  18. ↑ Halliday, Josh; Pidd, Helen (10 April 2014). "How case against Nigel Evans fell apart". The Guardian.
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