Nigel was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Selby and Ainsty in May 2010. He was re-elected in 2015, 2017 and most recently in December 2019 with a majority of 20,137 votes and 60.3% of the vote.
A local man born and bred
Being from a community and having knowledge of local issues and problems affecting residents is a big advantage for any Member of Parliament. Nigel was raised in the constituency and attended Camblesforth Primary followed by Selby Grammar School (now Selby High).
Nigel’s upbringing cannot be described as that of a “typical old school Tory”. His parents moved from South Yorkshire mining villages to the Selby area in the late 1950’s. His late mother worked as a school cleaner and for 20 years as a Home Help in the Selby area. His father finished his working career as the caretaker at Read School, Drax.
Nigel's experience
Nigel left school aged 17 and early in his work career, was made redundant. Because of this, he was inspired to set up his first business aged 26. He started his telecommunications company from scratch with a £20 a week Enterprise Allowance Scheme Government grant and the company grew successfully year on year and was acquired by a PLC in 1999.
Nigel has held a number of ministerial positions. From September 2021 to September 2022, he was Minister of State at the Cabinet Office and attended Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio.
From February 2020 to September 2021, Nigel was Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office with responsibility for Asia.
From July 2019 to February 2020, he was Minister of State for Sport, Media and Creative Industries. Between 2017 and 2019, Nigel served as a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner to HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales.
He was also a Junior Minister at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to two Leaders of the House of Lords.
Outside Politics
Nigel lives near York. He is married with four children and the family has two dogs.
Nigel is a keen sportsman and played cricket locally in the York Senior and West Riding cricket leagues. He is also a former member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club's members committee and was Secretary of the Lords and Commons Cricket Club. His greatest achievement in the role was captaining the Lords and Commons Cricket team against MCC at Lord's in 2013 where he managed to score 125 not out at the home of cricket!