Mark Simmonds

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Mark Simmonds

Mark Simmonds was the UK Conservative Party MP for Boston and Skegness from 2001- 2015.

He was parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from September 2012 for almost two years.[1]

Simmonds resigned from his role as minister for Africa on 11 August 2014[2], in part claiming that he could no longer afford to live on his £89,000 a year salary.

Revolving door

Since leaving his ministerial post, Simmonds has taken up various advisory roles, including several related to his ministerial brief:

  • strategic adviser to International Hospitals Group (IHG), a private firm based in Buckinghamshire involved in constructing hospitals in developing countries. Records show Simmonds met with IHG whilst parliamentary under-secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in December 2012 to 'discuss project in Ghana'.[3]
  • senior consultant of the Africa practice of corporate investigation giant Kroll (2015- )
  • chairman of the advisory board of the private investment club Invest Africa
  • chief operating officer of the Counter-Extremism Project, which is 'fighting the growth of Isis'
  • strategic adviser of First, an international affairs organisation
  • a non-executive deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council
  • chief executive of Mortlock Simmonds [4]

Political career

Simmons' parliamentary career has included posts as:

  • shadow minister (Health) 2003-04
  • shadow minister (Education) 2004-04
  • shadow minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) 2004-05,
  • shadow minister (International Development) 2005-07
  • shadow minister (Health) 2007-10
  • parliamentary under-secretary (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) 2012-2014

External meetings

In January 2013 met with:[5]

In March 2013:[5]

  • Visited the offices of BG Group, Dar es Salaam 'to discuss oil and gas opportunities for UK companies in Tanzania and in the East African region'
  • Met with Centrica plc 'to discuss energy issues'
  • Standard Chartered Bank 'to discuss Africa'

Affiliations


Notes

  1. Mark Simmonds, www.parliament.uk, accessed 9 November 2013.
  2. Ministerial appointments: 11 August 2014, Prime Minister's Office, 11 August 2014.
  3. Gov.UK Ministers: Meetings with external organisations, 31 December 2012, accessed 18 May 2015.
  4. Rajeev Syal, Tory minister who could not survive on salary takes role with private health firm, The Guardian, 14 May 2015, accessed same day
  5. 5.0 5.1 Transparency data: Ministers: Quarterly return - January to March 2013 - Meetings with external organisations, published July 2013, accessed 5 November 2014