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Lia Nici-Townend (born 1 August 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician. She has been
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
Great Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linc ...
since the 2019 general election. She served as an Assistant Government Whip from September to October 2022.


Early life and career

Nici was a college lecturer for 20 years, including in the media studies department at what is now the Grimsby Institute, a further education college. She was head of East Coast Media at the institute from 2004. She was the executive producer of Estuary TV, a Grimsby-based community interest company, from 2013 until the company was dissolved. Following its dissolution, she continued to act as CEO of "Estuary TV" (now a department of the institute, who had owned and dissolved the CIC). Nici has listed herself as having been self-employed since September 2018.


Political career


Elections

After failing to be selected in Grimsby and
Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A ...
, Nici stood as the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Kingston upon Hull North in 2017, losing to sitting Labour MP Diana Johnson by 14,322 votes. In May 2018, she was elected as a councillor for the Scartho ward of
North East Lincolnshire Council North East Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North East Lincolnshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It was established following the abolition of Humberside ...
. In August 2019, Nici was selected as the Conservative candidate for Great Grimsby for the 2019 snap general election. She won the seat with 54.9% of the vote and a margin of 7,331 votes over Labour, who had held the seat for 74 years; defeating the sitting Labour MP
Melanie Onn Melanie Onn (born 19 June 1979) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she previously served as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from ...
, who had represented Great Grimsby since
Austin Mitchell Austin Vernon Mitchell (19 September 1934 – 18 August 2021) was a British academic, journalist and Labour Party politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from a 1977 by-election to 2015. He was also the chair of t ...
's retirement in 2015.


Background

Nici was for several years the executive producer of Estuary TV, a local television channel incorporated as a 'community interest company', a registered entity intended to be run for community benefit. The channel was criticised for receiving £300,000 from 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. ...
...
under a scheme to meet quotas of local news content in return for subsidies. Data from 2014 showed that its programmes were seen by fewer than 200 people, some having no viewers at all. The BBC refused to reveal how many of Estuary TV's programmes it actually broadcast. Following Estuary TV CIC's dissolution by owners the Grimsby Institute, Nici continued as executive producer of "Estuary TV", now a department of the institute, and on 8 May 2018 confirmed herself in the register of NE Lincolnshire Councillors' interests as being the "CEO" of Estuary TV. Just under five years after becoming a figurehead for the government's new local television programme, the channel's licence was transferred to local television network
That's TV That's TV is a national television network in the United Kingdom, broadcasting via Sky, Freesat and Freeview. That's TV started off as the owner of a number of local television licences in several conurbations, but even though regional news ...
, finally being replaced by That's Humber in October 2018. Nici voted for the UK to remain in the EU in 2016. She subsequently became a supporter of leaving the EU and supported her party's approach to the exit process. In December 2019, she stated that the reason the UK had not left the EU was "a failure of people who live in northern towns like Grimsby who have Labour MPs who have consistently voted against the democratic vote in their constituencies."


Parliamentary career

In March 2020, she became a member of the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons. In May 2020, Nici supported
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
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 refusal to take action against his chief adviser
Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...
after the latter breached COVID-19 lockdown regulations, maintaining only that it was possible "he may have committed a minor breach", and should have apologised. In August 2020, Nici was one of 25 Conservative MPs and peers to sign a letter to
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
Priti Patel urging "stronger enforcement" against people crossing the English Channel in small boats, considering it to be "strikingly clear that, rather than a 'hostile environment', invading migrants have been welcomed". In October 2020, Nici was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...
, making her part of the payroll vote. Later that month, however, after being absent from voting on a Labour motion calling for the extension of free school meals into the school holidays, Nici said that she would have voted against the government had she been present. During the United Kingdom's second national lockdown in November 2020, Nici self-isolated after attending a meeting in 10 Downing Street with the prime minister and several other Conservative MPs including Lee Anderson, who subsequently tested positive for
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 ...
. Despite being pictured in close proximity with the prime minister, indoors and without a mask, Nici maintained that "we did everything we can" to remain safe. In March 2021, Nici used Twitter to suggest that people who "are not proud to be British, or of our flag or Queen ..should move to another country". Following criticism, she refused to apologise for her comments, saying that "the flag and the Queen are big parts of life in this country, so if you dislike it, you can happily move elsewhere". In a September 2021 interview with
YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...
Mahyar Tousi, Nici expressed her belief that "there are some very sinister, extreme left-wing things going on in our country and they're trying to lobby government and companies". In December 2021, amid the Westminster lockdown parties controversy, Nici maintained that Johnson's moral authority had not been lost, and expressed her displeasure with whistleblowers who had brought attention to the matter, declaring that they "should be ashamed". Following Johnson's subsequent admission that he had attended a Downing Street garden party during the United Kingdom's first national lockdown, Nici defended him, stating that "nobody is perfect. The prime minister is a good man who wants to do the right thing for the UK and Grimsby." The following day, she asserted her belief that both the party and the leaks surrounding it were part of a plot against the prime minister by civil servants who did not want the United Kingdom to leave the EU. In February 2022, Nici defended Johnson after his false claim that
Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
was responsible for the failure of the
Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...
to prosecute Jimmy Savile, alleging that the purported link between the two was "the number one issue for local people on social media" in the week before Johnson raised it in his response to the Sue Gray investigation into lockdown parties within government. The following week, Nici was appointed as a
parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister The Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister is a Parliamentary Private Secretary serving the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The holder of the office is widely viewed as the Prime Minister's "eyes and ears" on the backbenche ...
. In the
2022 vote of confidence in the Conservative Party leadership of Boris Johnson On 6 June 2022, a vote of confidence was held amongst Conservative Party MPs on the prime minister, Boris Johnson, leadership of their party. Johnson won the vote with the support of 211 Conservative members of Parliament, 58.8% of the total. Ou ...
, Nici voted in favour of the Prime Minister. She later continued to openly support Johnson in the subsequent weeks up to his eventual resignation of the Conservative Party on 7 July. The day after Johnson's resignation, she was appointed as a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Levelling Up in his lame duck government, pending the election of a new Conservative leader. On 10 July she repeated on the BBC allegations that Labour MP Angela Rayner crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract male MPs, a slur originally made by an unnamed Conservative politician to the ''Mail on Sunday'' newspaper in April 2022. At the time Boris Johnson described the story about Ms Rayner as "the most appalling load of sexist, misogynist tripe".


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nici, Lia) 1969 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Great Grimsby Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in the Borough of North East Lincolnshire UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister