John Penrose was first elected MP for Weston-super-Mare in 2005. His campaigns to make Britain’s economy work for the many, not the few, include the Energy Price Cap (recently successful); making housing cheaper to own or rent by allowing urban owners and developers to Build Up Not Out, and to Make Builders Build; making Britain’s economy more generationally-just and socially-just by creating a UK Sovereign Wealth Fund and a legally-binding Fiscal Rule; and reforming formerly-nationalised utilities (eg energy, telecoms, water, rail) to put customers in charge, rather than politicians, bureaucrats or regulators instead.
A successful businessman before he entered politics, John has held a variety of posts since he was elected including PPS to Oliver Letwin, Shadow Business Minister, Tourism & Heritage Minister, Government Whip (a move described by The Telegraph as a ‘deserved return’ for a ‘stand-out talent’) Constitution Minister and Northern Ireland Minister.
He is currently the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Champion (for both Theresa May and now Boris Johnson); Chair of Conservative Policy Forum, the Conservative Party’s internal Think Tank (since 2019); a member of the Advisory Board for the John Mills Institute for Prosperity; and has been officially asked to recommend changes to the UK’s post-Brexit Competition and Consumer Regime (the Daily Telegraph described John as ‘an innovative thinker’ and said the report ‘could be a hugely influential piece of work’; it is due out by the end of 2020).