Philip Dunne (Ludlow MP)

The Right Honourable Philip Dunne MP
Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 January 2020
Preceded by	Mary Creagh
Minister of State for Health
In office 15 July 2016 – 9 January 2018
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Alistair Burt
Succeeded by	Caroline Dinenage
Minister for Defence Procurement
In office 4 September 2012 – 15 July 2016
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Peter Luff
Succeeded by	Harriett Baldwin
Member of Parliament for Ludlow
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Matthew Green
Majority	23,648 (47.1%)
Personal details
Born	(1958-08-14) 14 August 1958 (age 63) Ludlow, Shropshire, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Domenica Dunne
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Keble College, Oxford

Philip Martin Dunne (born 14 August 1958) is a British Conservative Party politician. Since 2005, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ludlow constituency in Shropshire.

He has been a farmer since 1987, at his family's farm just over the county boundary in Herefordshire, at Leintwardine near Ludlow, and was elected in 2001 as a councillor on the South Shropshire District Council, of which he was the Conservative leader in 2003–2005. He was also secretary of the Ludlow Conservative Association for a year in 2001.

He was Minister of State for Health in the First May ministry.

Background[]

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Philip Dunne was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, and has an ancestry of politicians and courtiers. He is the son of Sir Thomas Dunne KG, the former Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, who in turn is the son of Philip Russell Rendel Dunne (who briefly sat in the Commons), who in turn was the son of Edward Marten Dunne (who also sat in the Commons). Philip Dunne was educated at Abberley Hall School, followed by Eton College and Keble College, Oxford, where he was awarded a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. At Oxford he was part of the Bullingdon Club.^[1]

Political career[]

He was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for Ludlow when he unseated the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP, Matthew Green. Dunne regained the (historically safe) seat for the Conservatives; the seat having been lost at the 2001 general election. He made his maiden speech on 8 June 2005.^[2] During his first term in Parliament (2005–2010) he was a member of the Work and Pensions Select committee, and in 2006 he was appointed to the Public Accounts Committee.

Philip Dunne held the Ludlow constituency seat in the 2010 general election with a notable swing from the Liberal Democrats, giving Dunne a 52.8 per cent share of the vote and a new, strengthened majority of 9,749. In the 2015 general election Dunne again increased his share of the vote and substantially increased his majority.

In July 2016, he was appointed as Minister for State for Health.^[3] In Prime Minister Theresa May's January 2018 reshuffle, he was dismissed from his ministerial post. Before losing his post, Dunne was accused of belittling the winter NHS bed crisis by suggesting unwell people in accident and emergency departments of hospitals without beds could instead use seats.^[4][5]

Just before the Conservative leadership election of 2005, he balloted his constituents about whom he should vote for in the contest. After this ballot Dunne announced that he would be supporting David Cameron; he was also Chairman of Cameron's campaign in Shropshire.^{[citation needed]}

Following the formation of the Liberal Democrat–Conservative coalition government shortly after the general election, Philip Dunne was appointed as an unpaid assistant government whip in the House of Commons.^[6] In September 2012, he was appointed Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology with responsibility for defence procurement and defence exports.^[7] In this role, he was the minister responsible for, and one of the backers of, the bill which became the Defence Reform Act 2014.^[8] He was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in the 2019 New Years Honours List, giving him the honorific title "The Right Honourable".

In the 2019 leadership election, Dunne managed Jeremy Hunt's campaign.^[9]

In November 2019, at a hustings held in Church Stretton, Dunne told the Labour candidate, Kuldip Sahota, that he was "talking through his turban".^[10]

On 29 January 2020, Dunne was elected as chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, spearheading the examination of government policies' impact on the environment.^[11] In this remit, he proposed a private member's bill aiming at sanctioning water companies "that discharge sewage into Britain's rivers".^[12]

Personal life[]

He is married to Domenica and they have two sons and two daughters. As well as farming, Dunne has worked in banking. He also helped start up Ottakar's bookshop.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, Dunne's wealth was estimated at £5m.^{[13][needs update]}

References[]

External links[]

• Homepage of Philip Dunne MP
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• BBC Democracy Live Philip Dunne MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Philip Dunne MP
• Maiden speech in the House of Commons on 8 June 2005.