Edward Argar
Edward Argar | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2022 | |
| Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation | |
| Assumed office 13 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
| Preceded by | Damian Hinds |
| Minister of State for Victims and Sentencing | |
| In office 27 October 2022 – 13 November 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
| Preceded by | Rachel Maclean |
| Succeeded by | Laura Farris (Victims) Gareth Bacon (Sentencing) |
| Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 14 October 2022 – 25 October 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Liz Truss |
| Preceded by | Chris Philp |
| Succeeded by | John Glen |
| Minister for the Cabinet Office Paymaster General | |
| In office 6 September 2022 – 14 October 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Liz Truss |
| Preceded by | Michael Ellis |
| Succeeded by | Chris Philp |
| Minister of State for Health | |
| In office 10 September 2019 – 6 July 2022 | |
| Prime Minister | Boris Johnson |
| Preceded by | Chris Skidmore |
| Succeeded by | Maria Caulfield |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice | |
| In office 14 June 2018 – 10 September 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Phillip Lee |
| Succeeded by | Chris Philp |
| Member of Parliament for Charnwood | |
| Assumed office 7 May 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Stephen Dorrell |
| Majority | 22,397 (40.5%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 December 1977 Ashford, Kent, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford |
| Website | www |
Edward John Comport Argar (born 9 December 1977) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation since November 2023.[1][2] He briefly served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice from 2018 to 2019, Minister of State for Health from 2019 to 2022, and as Paymaster General from September to October 2022. Argar has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Charnwood since the 2015 general election.
Early life
Argar was born in
Early career and Westminster council career
After leaving university, he spent four years working as Press Secretary for Shadow Foreign Secretary Lord Ancram, who at the time shared an office with then Shadow Cabinet Minister Sir Alan Duncan.[4]
After working for Lord Ancram, he worked for Hedra, a management consultancy which was taken over by Mouchel. In February 2013, he was elected onto the South East Regional Council of the CBI, describing himself as 'Head of Public Affairs, Serco UK & Europe'.[5]
He became a Conservative member of
Parliament
He stood in Oxford East in the 2010 general election, with his election leaflet promising a Conservative government would deliver a fairer society with improved public services and more NHS investment.[8] However, he was defeated by Andrew Smith, the former Work and Pensions minister. Argar subsequently attended selections in the constituencies of Newark, Tonbridge and Malling, Wealden and Mid Worcestershire, before being selected to contest the safe seat of Charnwood previously held by Stephen Dorrell; a Daily Telegraph article praising open primaries referred to him as a "serial candidate".[9] The Leicester Mercury, noting his selection had attracted criticism, asked whether Parliamentary candidates should have a link to the constituency.[10]
Argar gave his maiden speech on 4 June 2015. He praised his predecessor, Stephen Dorrell and described the constituency as a post 2010 success story but said he would be "continuing to campaign for fairer funding ..for its schools." On other issues, he said that although the Government had made significant progress in dementia care and mental health provision, more was needed and he promised to vocally support those committed to further improvement. However he was there to represent the whole community in Charnwood, including those on the fringes and he passionately believed in
Dementia awareness campaign
Argar opened a debate on dementia in September 2015. He praised the work done by the previous Labour government in formulating a dementia strategy and described a visit to a Syston community centre. He said some 21m people have a close friend or family member with the disease, and stated that the government has committed £66m to research. He also paid tribute to the Alzheimer's Society, Alzheimer's Research UK and Age UK for their work.[13]
Writing in the Tribune in October 2015, Argar put the annual cost of the disease, which affects 850,000 people, at £23 billion, and argued for government departments, including hospitals, to become dementia-friendly places. He hoped Leicestershire County Council, which had amongst the lowest Government funding, would get a better deal to help provide care support for rural areas. According to Argar, dementia patients stay 20% longer than average in hospitals, and he expressed concern that 41% of hospitals do not include awareness training during staff induction.[14]
Ministerial career
Argar was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary in the January 2019 reshuffle. He was later appointed Under-Secretary of State for Justice in June 2018 replacing Philip Lee. Argar was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care on 10 September 2019. Argar was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice between 14 June 2018 and 10 September 2019. The website Conservative Home noted that by appointing someone who always followed the party line, Theresa May had missed an opportunity to silence a potential critic.[15] The Law Gazette described him as 'a little-known backbencher' and said that like Lee his role would include responsibility for treatment of women and child offenders.[16]
Argar's appointment as Minister of State for Health preceded the start of the COVID-19 virus arrival in January 2020. In June 2020, Argar was interviewed by Nick Robinson on the BBC Today programme. His new quarantine policy was designed to stop travellers from high risk countries from importing the disease. However, asked three times to name European countries with a higher infection rate, Argar repeatedly described the policy leading Robinson to interrupt him saying he was either unable or unwilling to answer the question.[17]
On 6 July 2022, Argar resigned from government in the wake of widespread criticism of Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, following a large number of other ministerial resignations.
On 7 September 2022, he was appointed Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office in Liz Truss's first cabinet.[18] He was sworn-in as a member of the Privy Council on 13 September 2022 following his appointment.[19]
On 14 October 2022, following the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Argar was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury replacing Chris Philp.[20]
Upon the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, Argar left the Cabinet and was appointed Minister of State for Victims and Sentencing in the Ministry of Justice.
Personal life
According to his 2015 election leaflets, he owned a house in
Argar married Laetitia Glossop on 3 September 2022, at the parish church in Hindon, Wiltshire.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- ^ "Minister of State". GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ "Oxford East candidates try to woo students". BBC News. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ "About Edward Argar". Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Fresh faces voted on to South East Regional Council". cbi.org.uk/. 18 February 2013. Archived from the original on 5 June 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
- ^ "Wealden Open Primary:Edward Argar". Wealden Conservatives. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- ^ Ben Bloom (1 March 2012). "Philippa Roe to become new Westminster Council leader". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ "Ed Argar election leaflet 2010". electionleaflets.org. 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
- ^ James Kirkup (1 November 2013). "Evening Briefing: A new breed of MP?". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ^ "The Big Question: Do you think parliamentary candidates should have a connection to the constituency?". 28 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- ^ "HC debate 4 June 2015, c857". Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- ^ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ^ "HC Deb, 9 September 2015, c120WH". 9 September 2015.
- ^ Edward Argar (26 October 2015). "The challenge we must meet for dementia sufferers". Tribune magazine. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ Henry Hill (14 June 2018). "Argar replaces Lee at Justice". conservativehome. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ Michael Cross (15 June 2018). "Edward Argar MP joins justice ministerial team". Law Gazette. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ Sophia Sleigh (4 June 2020). "Edward Argar unable to name single European country with higher coronavirus infection rate than UK". Evening Standard. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
- ^ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ "Orders for 13 September 2022" (PDF). Privy Council Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ "Treasury chief secretary Chris Philp moved aside and replaced by Edward Argar amid economic chaos". Sky News. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ Source Westminster city council "Declaration file for Councillor Edward Argar.pdf" downloaded 23 March 2015
External links
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
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