Benjamin William Everitt (born 22 November 1979) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Milton Keynes North since the 2019 general election.

Early life and career

Everitt was born in

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, in 1979 to parents Peter and Rosemary Everitt. He attended The King's School in Grantham, and then Durham University, where he obtained a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

. Everitt worked as a management consultant for

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

from 2009 to 2012. He was latterly head of strategy for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 2012 to 2020.

Political career

At the 2015 local elections, Everitt was elected to Aylesbury Vale District Council, representing Great Brickhill and Newton Longville ward for the Conservatives. He was elected as the MP for the marginal Milton Keynes North constituency at the 2019 general election, succeeding the former Conservative MP Mark Lancaster. In 2020, Aylesbury Vale became part of the newly created

Buckinghamshire Council Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary local authority in England, the area of which constitutes most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It was created in April 2020 from the areas that were previously administered by Buckinghamshire Cou ...

, with Everitt serving as a councillor on the new unitary authority until the inaugural elections in May 2021. In 2020, Everitt became chairman of the

All-Party Parliamentary Group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...

for Housing Market and Housing Delivery. He also became chair of the

on Connected and Automated Mobility with his Milton Keynes North constituency being home to numerous automated mobility trials including driverless cars. Everitt is a supporter of

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

. He was successful in campaigning for a new £200 million Women and Children's Hospital in Milton Keynes, alongside fellow Conservative MP Iain Stewart, who represents Milton Keynes South. In November 2020, Everitt was one of more than 50 MPs who signed a letter calling on a proposed pay rise for MPs to be scrapped due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. The pay rise was scrapped in December. Everitt has called on the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to extend the Stamp Duty holiday which had been put in place to support movers and the housing market during the pandemic.

Controversies

Everitt was criticised by opponents during the 2019 election campaign for allegedly staging a photo of himself picking up litter in the car park of the Conservative Club in

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. Bletchley is best know ...

Transphobia

In May 2020, a tweet posted by Everitt in 2011 was shared on social media, in which he referred to the late Labour MP

Tessa Jowell Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, (; 18 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from ...

as looking like "a

tranny ''Tranny'' is an offensive and derogatory slur for a transgender individual. During the early 2000s, there was some confusion and debate over whether the term was a pejorative, was considered acceptable, or a reappropriated term of unity and pr ...

with a hangover". He apologised for the remark.

Personal life

He married Emma Skinner in 2006; the couple have a son and two daughters. He lists his recreations as "family, watching Rugby, drinking beer", and is a member of the

United and Cecil Club The United and Cecil Club (U&C) is a British dining club with close links to the Conservative Party. Formed in 1949 following the merger of the United Club and the Cecil Club, the club is the seventh-largest donor to the Conservatives, and focus ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Everitt, Ben Living people 1979 births Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2019–present Alumni of Durham University