Thomas Patrick Hunt (born 31 August 1988) is a British 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 of ...

(MP) for

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

since

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. He is a member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. Earlier in his career, he was a councillor on

East Cambridgeshire District Council East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

from 2011 to 2017. Following the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough devolution deal, Hunt also worked as chief of staff to the elected

Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough The Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is a combined authority mayor, first elected in May 2017. The mayor is leader of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. This office was created under the Cities and Local Government D ...

Early life

Hunt was born and raised in Ely,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

. His father is a long-serving councillor on

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a mem ...

and

. Hunt attended The King's School, Ely and

Hills Road Sixth Form College Hills Road Sixth Form College (commonly referred to as HRSFC, Hills Road or just Hills) is a public sector co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time A-level courses for approximately 2000 sixth form students fro ...

in Cambridge. He went on to study Politics and Modern History at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

and an MSc at

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...

Political career

Local and regional government

In 2011, Hunt was elected as a district councillor for Ely South on

, serving until 2017. He was head of media for the

Countryside Alliance The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to "Give Rural Britain a voice". History The Countryside Alliance ...

. After working as a

parliamentary assistant In UK politics, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan member of staff employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work at the House of Commons in the U ...

for

Oliver Dowden Oliver James Dowden (born 1 August 1978) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster since October 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertsmere since 2015. Dowden served in the Johnson gover ...

MP, Hunt worked as chief of staff to the

, James Palmer. In July 2020, a government minister, Simon Clarke, criticised the appointment, saying that the legal advice behind it "contained significant omissions".

2017 general election

In the 2017 general election, Hunt stood as the Conservative candidate in the Doncaster Central constituency, but lost to Rosie Winterton.

2019 general election

Hunt was selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Ipswich by the local Conservative Association in September 2018. He had few previous connections to the town. During the run up to the 2019 general election, Hunt said he would prioritise more investment in public services in Suffolk. This was to include more funding for Suffolk Constabulary to tackle county lines gangs and knife crime. He stated that Ipswich had not had a fair deal regarding police funding, and also called for tougher sentencing for those found guilty of serious crime. Hunt has also stated that he wanted infrastructure upgrades. He has expressed his support for an Ipswich northern bypass, a solution to closures of

Orwell Bridge The Orwell Bridge is a concrete box girder bridge just south of Ipswich in Suffolk, England. Opened to road traffic in 1982, the bridge carries the A14 road (formerly the A45) over the River Orwell. History Design The main span is 190 metre ...

due to high winds, in addition to better and more reliable rail services. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ipswich on 12 December 2019, defeating the incumbent

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Sandy Martin Sandy Martin is an American actress, playwright, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles in the film ''Napoleon Dynamite'' and the TV series ''Big Love'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', and ''Ray Donovan''. Career Martin ...

. He received 24,952 votes, a 50.3% vote share. Hunt identified

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 or ...

and the unpopularity of Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

as issues behind the Conservatives' victory in Ipswich. He said being elected to represent Ipswich was the greatest honour of his life.

Member of Parliament for Ipswich

One of Hunt's first actions after becoming an MP was to join the

European Research Group The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group and caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The journalist Sebastian Payne described it in the ''Financial Times'' as "the most influential e ...

, a eurosceptic group of MPs. After his election to Parliament in 2019, Hunt said his priorities for Ipswich included combatting anti-social behaviour, ensuring good hospital and GP services in the constituency, and seeking greater investment in roads and the rail network in Suffolk. In his maiden speech, Hunt said that he had been diagnosed with

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

and dyspraxia. He favours support for children with special educational needs. In January 2020, Hunt wrote in an article for the local ''

East Anglian Daily Times The ''East Anglian Daily Times'' is a British local newspaper for Suffolk and Essex, based in Ipswich. History The newspaper began publication on 13 October 1874, incorporating the ''Ipswich Express'', which had been published since 13 August ...

'' newspaper on crime and anti-social behaviour in Ipswich stating "It is impossible to start thinking about remedies to these issues without also being ready to confront the possibility that a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by individuals from certain communities. This is something we should be open and honest about. Brushing it under the carpet will not get us closer to solving the issue." The Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality called his comments "at best disappointing and at worst an ill-judged piece of dogwhistling." Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim Passmore, referred to them as "very unhelpful". During November 2020 he joined the

COVID Recovery Group The COVID Recovery Group (CRG) is an informal group of Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who opposed the UK government's decision to introduce a second period of lockdown measures for England during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who voted agai ...

and abstained in the vote for a second lockdown. Following an interim report on the connections between

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

and properties now in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, including links with historic slavery, Hunt was among the signatories of a letter to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' in November 2020 from the "

Common Sense Group The Common Sense Group is an informal group of Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who advocate a broad range of ideals that they think the Conservative Party and the country ought to be following. The group was inspired by the euro-sceptic ...

" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by

cultural Marxist The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims that Western Marxism is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert Western culture. The conspiracy theory misrepresents the ...

dogma, colloquially known as the '

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...

agenda'". He has also said that

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

are "waging a war against our heritage", and considers their approach to explaining slavery at their sites as "Maoist and dystopian". On 16 March 2021, Hunt denied claims made by Labour councillors that he had refused to meet with front-line workers with Hunt saying that this was due to earlier disputes with TUC members. In April 2021, Hunt called for the flying of the

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

to be made compulsory in all schools, stating on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that "If any pupils and teachers have concerns about this then surely they can be "educated" about what the flag actually represents". He was criticised for this by many social media users. In January 2022, Hunt reacted to the clearing of the four people charged with the toppling of the

Statue of Edward Colston The statue of Edward Colston is a bronze statue of Bristol-born merchant and trans-Atlantic slave trader, Edward Colston (1636–1721). It was created in 1895 by the Irish sculptor John Cassidy and was formerly erected on a plinth of Portland ...

by telling ''

'' "If you've broken the law and committed criminal damage you should be punished. If the jury is a barrier to ensuring they are punished then that needs to be addressed". In April 2022, after

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 is not ...

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 ...

and

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...

were fined for breaking Covid rules during the '

Partygate Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about parties and other gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff held during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gather ...

' scandal, Hunt said that he believed they did not break the law and the decision to fine them was 'a bit harsh'.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Tom Alumni of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ipswich People from Ely, Cambridgeshire People with dyslexia UK MPs 2019–present 1988 births People educated at King's Ely