Damien Moore

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Damien Moore
MP
Official portrait of Damien Moore MP 2020 crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2019
Parliamentary Private Secretary
to the Cabinet Office
Assumed office
7 August 2019
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
MinisterMichael Gove
Member of Parliament
for Southport
Assumed office
8 June 2017
Preceded byJohn Pugh
Majority4,147 (8.6%)
Personal details
Born (1980-04-26) 26 April 1980 (age 41)[1]
Workington, Cumbria, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of Central Lancashire
Websitewww.damienmooremp.com

Damien Moore (born 26 April 1980) is a British Conservative Party politician.[2] He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Southport[3] and a former Councillor on Preston City Council. He was elected in the 2017 general election with a majority of 2,914 votes,[4] taking a seat previously held by Liberal Democrat John Pugh until his retirement.[5]

Early life and education[]

Moore was born in Workington in Cumbria. He studied history at the University of Central Lancashire.[6] After graduating, he worked in various roles in the retail sector, gaining promotion to be a retail manager for Asda.[7]

He was first elected as a councillor for the Conservative Party on Preston City Council on 3 May 2010 for the Greyfriars Ward.[8] Although the vote share for the Conservatives fell, he won by a large majority. He was re-elected with an increased majority on 5 May 2016. He has served as deputy leader of the Conservative group on the Council and as Chairman of the Preston Conservative Association. He unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Preston West division in the Lancashire County Council elections in 2013 and 2017.[9][10]

Member of Parliament[]

Moore stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Southport in the 2015 general election, losing to the incumbent Liberal Democrat John Pugh. After Pugh declined to stand again, Moore achieved a swing of 7.6% from the Liberal Democrats to take the Southport in the 2017 general election, becoming the first Conservative MP for the seat since 1997 and the first openly gay MP in the seat's history. The election also left him as the only Conservative MP on Merseyside.[11] In advance of the 2018 Preston City Council election, Moore resigned as a city councillor to focus on his parliamentary work.

Moore has voted for cutting ties with the EU consistently since becoming an MP.[12][13]

On 11 September 2017, Damien Moore was appointed to the Petitions Committee. The committee assists members of the public in raising issues directly.[14] In January 2018 he was also appointed the Science and Technology Committee.[15]

In Parliament Moore chaired a number of All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including those on Tunisia, Blockchain, and the Benelux countries.

He was re-elected in the 2019 General Election with an increased majority. His election campaign was viewed as contentious as Moore claimed he had secured £25 million from the New Towns Fund for Southport, when in fact the town actually had only the opportunity to bid for up to £25 million.[16]

Prior to his re-election, Moore was placed 611 of 650 MPs in the 2019 People-Power Index, a health check of how Parliament is working and how our MPs are listening to and engaging with, their constituents.[17]

On 21 October 2020, Moore was the only MP from the Merseyside region to vote against extending the 80% furlough rate for people forced out of work in tier three lockdown areas, despite his own constituency and the entire Merseyside region being in tier three lockdown at the time.[18]

Following his decision to vote against providing 80% furlough to workers, a local restaurant owner barred Moore from entering his premises.[19]

Following Labour's motion calling to extend free school meals for the poorest children on 21 October 2020, Moore abstained and protestors sent a message of dissatisfaction by leaving paper plates with messages written on them outside Moore's office in Post Office Avenue, Southport.[20]

In October 2020, A group of Conservative MPs in northern England launched a new campaign group, The Northern Research Group. The aim of the group said was to pressure the government to stick to their post-election pledge of "levelling up" the north by spending money and increasing infrastructure projects in the area. Moore signed up to this group.[21] However, in a letter sent to the Boris Johnson from the Northern Research Group on the 26th October 2020 in which 41 named MPs expressed fears that the government's “levelling up” is being abandoned, Moore's name is absent.[22]

Throughout his tenure as the town's MP he been accused of censorship, deleting opposing views and users blocked from his social media accounts.[23][24]

Personal life[]

Moore lives in Preston.[25] He is openly gay.[26][27][28]

References[]

  1. ^ "Members' Names Data Platform query". UK Parliament. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Damien Moore selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Southport". Southport Conservatives.
  3. ^ "Damien Moore MP". UK Parliament.
  4. ^ Bona, Emilia (9 June 2017). "Southport falls to Tories after 20 years of Lib Dem rule". Liverpool Echo.
  5. ^ Bona, Emilia (9 June 2017). "Southport won by Conservatives in General Election 2017". Southport Visiter. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Moore, Damien". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. Vol. 2018 (February 2018 online ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. Retrieved 13 February 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ Bona, Emilia (28 April 2017). "Conservatives choose Southport Parliamentary candidate for General Election". Southport Visiter.
  8. ^ "Councillor Damien Moore". Preston City Council. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  9. ^ "New leaders announced in Preston's Conservative group". Lancashire Evening Post. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  10. ^ Dale, Iain (7 September 2017). The Politicos Guide to the New House of Commons 2017.
  11. ^ "Election results 2017: Conservatives gain Southport". BBC News. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  12. ^ "Southport constituency candidates for General Election 2017". Liverpool Echo. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  13. ^ "They Work for You". They work for you. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  14. ^ "Membership - Petitions Committee". parliament.uk. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  15. ^ "Damien Moore MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Labour accuse Tory MP of 'lying' about £25m funding for town". 11 December 2019.
  17. ^ "Damien Moore MP - poor showing in the People Power Index". 6 December 2019.
  18. ^ Lally, Kate (21 October 2020). "Southport MP votes against 80% furlough for workers in his town". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  19. ^ "MP told 'you are not welcome here' by restaurant after his vote". 26 October 2020.
  20. ^ "Empty Plates Protest mounted against Southport's MP Damien Moore". 27 October 2020.
  21. ^ "'Red Wall' Tory MPS form backbench group to campaign for northern England". 10 October 2020.
  22. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/26/over-50-tory-mps-in-northern-england-press-pm-for-roadmap-out-of-lockdown,
  23. ^ "Southport MP accused of "Trump tactics" after censorship in funding row". 15 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Will Southport MP follow Judge's Trump Twitter Ruling?". 24 May 2018.
  25. ^ "Merseyside's only Tory MP accused of trying to hide the fact he is a Tory". Liverpool Echo. 22 April 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  26. ^ Hovden, Martin (12 June 2017). "Damien Moore. As a gay MP I support Prime Minister's equal rights assurance". Qlocal Southport. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  27. ^ Reynolds, Andrew (5 June 2017). "General Election 2017: UK Set to Break Record for Highest Number of LGBTQ MPs After General Election". Pink News.
  28. ^ "As a gay MP, I Support PM's Equal Rights Assurance". OTS News. 12 June 2017.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Southport
2017–present 		Incumbent
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