Mike Penning

Early life and career

Penning was born in Hendon, Middlesex, and raised in the neighbouring county of Essex. He went to Appleton School, South Benfleet, before attending King Edmund School in Rochford. He enlisted in the British Army as a Grenadier Guardsman after leaving school, and served several tours in Northern Ireland, Kenya and Germany. During his time in the Grenadiers, one of his officers, Captain Robert Nairac, was abducted and assassinated by the IRA.

After leaving the Army, Penning subsequently worked as a firefighter for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, before joining his family business prior to embarking upon his career in public service through political journalism. He is known to be an avid supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Political career

In the mid-1990s, Penning worked as a media adviser to the Euro-rebels who had had the Conservative Party whip removed by Prime Minister John Major during the Maastricht rebellion. He was subsequently the election agent to Sir Teddy Taylor during the 1997 general election. He stood for election in the safe Labour seat of Thurrock at the 2001 general election, coming second to Andrew MacKinlay MP (Labour). Following this, he was appointed as a chief adviser to William Hague as Leader of the Opposition, later becoming the Conservative Party's Deputy Head of Media under the brief and unpopular leadership of Iain Duncan Smith.

Member of Parliament

At the 2005 general election Penning stood in the Labour-held seat of Hemel Hempstead, narrowly defeating sitting MP Tony McWalter. Penning overturned McWalter's 2001 majority of 3,742 votes and won the seat (after a partial recount) by 499 votes. In July 2007, Penning was promoted by Conservative Leader David Cameron to the post of Shadow Minister for Public Health.

The Buncefield fire occurred on 11 December 2005 and led to some 2,700 claims for compensation. In the words of neighbouring MP Peter Lilley, "There is something providential about the fact that the worst fire in western Europe since the Second World War should occur in a constituency represented by a fireman. It was undoubtedly in the interests of all his constituents and mine to have someone so knowledgeable, as well as so vigorous in their response, to represent their interests." Penning, who arrived on the scene within half an hour of the explosion, had himself been trained to deal with much smaller petroleum fires; the scenario was that one tank not twenty was affected.

Dexion workers, 700 of whom worked in the constituency, lost their pensions when the company went into receivership in 2003. Dexion played a prominent part in Dr Ros Altmann's Pensions theft campaign. Penning, whose support for Dexion preceded his election, offered compensation from unclaimed assets in his 2005 Manifesto and has spoken on the issue 26 times in Parliament. Dexion pensioners were featured celebrating a victory at the High Court in February 2007 which eventually led to increased compensation from the then-Labour Government.

According to Theyworkforyou.com, Penning spoke in an "above average" number of debates last year and replied to a "very high number" of messages. He also received replies to an "above average" number of written questions. The quality of those questions was disputed by a 2006 Times article about the Theyworkforyou website which Penning used to email constituents. His 624 questions in 10 months included one on sales of lost property in Royal Parks since records began. The newspaper suggested the objective was to increase ratings on the website, an allegation rejected by Penning.

Penning "occasionally rebelled", with two percent of his votes being against the Whip, and was "very strongly" in favour of a smoking ban. Penning's parliamentary expenses details have been published as part of a general publication of all MPs' expenses. In 2009, he claimed a total of £135,078, 502nd of all MPs. The Legg Report found no problem with his expenses. Penning did, however, voluntarily repay £2.99 for a dog bowl, which was the lowest recorded repayment by any MP.

In the June 2017 General Election he held the Hemel Hempstead seat with a reduced majority of 9,445, but with an increased share of the vote, at 55%.

Minister of State

Penning achieved one of the largest increases in his majority of all MPs at the 2010 general election, when he took 50% of the vote share to hold the seat with a majority of 13,406. This result relegated Labour's Ayfer Orhan to third place behind the Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Grayson, representing the largest swing from the Labour Party to the Conservative Party (a 14.4% swing) in the country.

Following that election, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him a Minister of State for Transport, with roads and shipping being among his responsibilities. In his capacity as Minister for Shipping, Penning presented Efthimios Mitropoulos (immediate past-IMO Secretary-General) with the insignia of in Greece on behalf of The Queen. In his role as Road Safety Minister, he suggested that the Dutch could learn about cyclist safety from the British. However cycling ambassador Roelof Wittink explained that although the UK had a lower death toll per head of population, the Dutch use cycles far more and have one third of the fatalities per mile cycled. The Guardian also criticised "Ministers who don't understand statistics."

In the reshuffle of 4 September 2012, Penning was moved to become Minister of State for Northern Ireland, a position he held for just over a year until being promoted to become Minister of State for Disabled People on 7 October 2013. He was subsequently promoted a second time on 15 July 2014 to serve as both the Minister of State for Policing and the Minister of State for Justice, and was also sworn of the Privy Council.

In the 2015 general election, Penning increased his majority by 2.9% to 52.9% to hold the seat with a 14,420 majority. In the subsequent reshuffle, Penning was appointed as Minister of State in the Home Office for Policing and Criminal Justice.

Following the June 2017 General Election, he was relieved of ministerial duties.

Honours