Julian Knight (born 5 January 1972) is a British politician and former journalist 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

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...

since 2015. He is a member of the Conservative Party, but sits in the House of Commons as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

since December 2022, having had the Conservative Party whip suspended after the Metropolitan Police received a referral involving allegations of sexual assault. Knight said he was "entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever".

Early life

Knight was born in 1972 in Chester. He grew up in a lone-parent family. He attended

Chester Catholic High School Chester Catholic High School or CHSC but officially called The Catholic High School, Chester is a co-educational Roman Catholic secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located on the outskirts of Handbridge, Chester, England. T ...

, and went on to study History at the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

, the first in his family to do so, and graduated with a 2:2.

Employment before Parliament

After university, Knight moved to London to find work, undertaking a variety of jobs before finding employment on a local newspaper. He later worked for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Political career

2005 General Election

2015 general election

2016 UK referendum on European Union membership

2017 general election

In January 2018, Knight was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Justice providing support to Ministers. In September 2018 he moved to the Department for Work and Pensions before moving to HM Treasury in January 2019. Knight also served as the

Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy A Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy is a position in British foreign policy, within the Department for International Trade since 2016, and formerly with the UK Trade & Investment government department from 2003 to 2016. Trade Envoys are appointed by ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, where he formed part of a network of parliamentarians with the role of strengthening relations with foreign countries, and helping British businesses in accessing foreign markets. In April 2018, Knight made his first visit to the country as Trade Envoy. Knight made his final visit in September 2018, and left the post at a later date. Knight defended his seat during the 2019 General Election. He increased his majority, this time to 21,273. Labour came second and the Liberal Democrats were placed third. In December 2021, Knight said there was a "real sense of palpable loss" over the death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in Solihull. Knight said the sentences given to the killers of the boy were too lenient and he would be referring the sentences to the Attorney General's Office for review under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. In April 2022, following the Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's apology after being given a fixed penalty notice for breaking

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

regulations, Knight said that due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

it was "not the right time to change the leadership of the country." On 7 December 2022, Knight was suspended as a Conservative MP after a complaint was made to the Metropolitan Police. A Conservative Party spokeswoman did not provide further details as it was under investigation. The following day, the Metropolitan Police said that it had received a report of "allegations of sexual assault against unnamed victims" on 28 October 2022 and after a further referral on 7 December 2022 had started an investigation. Knight stated he was "entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever". He said that he subsequently received "explicit threats involving blackmail as well as being at the centre of a campaign of rumour and innuendo" which was being dealt with by his lawyers.

Committees

From July 2015 to April 2017, Knight served as a member of the House of Commons

Communities and Local Government Committee The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee (formerly the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine ...

, during which time he co-sponsored the Government's Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. Since December 2016 he has served on the Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee, later the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. In that role he has made several high-profile interventions, including on the BBC gender pay row and against

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and digital company

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intellig ...

during the committee's inquiry into 'fake news'. In January 2020, Knight was elected as Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Knight replaced

Damian Collins Damian Noel Thomas Collins (born 4 February 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician who formerly served as Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport between July and October 2022. ...

as chairman.

Other work

Knight has written books on a variety of subjects for the ''For Dummies'' series, including the

Euro crisis The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone membe ...

, Retiring Wealthy and The Royal Wedding.

Personal life

Knight lives in

. He is married to Philippa, a former nurse.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Julian 1972 births British journalists Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Living people The Independent people UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Alumni of the University of Hull Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom