Brandon Lewis
Brandon Lewis has been the Conservative Party member of Parliament (MP) for Great Yarmouth since May 2010.
He was appointed minister of state at the Home Office in July 2019.
Contents
Ministerial roles
- Minister without Portfolio from January 2018 to July 2019
- Minister of State for Immigration from June 2017 to January 2018
- Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service
- Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government from July 2014 until July 2016.
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government from September 2012 until July 2014.[1]
Background
Lewis is a qualified barrister and a company director. Before joining the government he was an active member of a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups, including those for enterprise zones and local growth as well as local government. He was also the co-chair of a group on coastal erosion. [2]
Lewis served on Brentwood Borough Council for more than 10 years, and was Leader for five of those. [2]
Views on fracking
Local councils should be allowed to decide
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This article is part of the Spinwatch Fracking Portal and project |
Although Lewis is generally in favour of his party's position on fracking, he has said he believes decisions on shale gas should be made by local people, through their local authority. He made the comment on BBC Radio 4’s 'Any Questions' programme, broadcast four miles from Third Energy’s fracking site in North Yorkshire just days before the then communities secretary Sajid Javid decided Cuadrilla should be allowed to frack at two sites in Lancashire, despite widespread local opposition.
He stated:
- “I had two years as the housing and planning minister, so in terms of the decision here locally it is a decision that has been made by locally-elected councillors who are locally democratically accountable as part of a planning process.
- “The reality is those councillors will have had to have made a decision. When they look at a planning application, they will have to look at all the evidence that is put in front of them, make a decision about what they think is right as locally elected councillors for their area. And I think it is absolutely right that these decisions are made by local people and they are made by local people through their local authority, that is how our democratic system works.” [3]
Meetings with fracking companies
In March 2018, policing minister Lewis met fracking company Cuadrilla as protests at the firm’s Preston New Road drilling site in Lancashire intensified. Six months later, in September, three anti-fracking campaigners at the site were jailed. The sentences were overturned on appeal. [4]
Education
Lewis has a BSc in Economics and LLB Hons (Law) from the University of Buckingham. He also holds an LLM in commercial law from King’s College London. [2]
Staff
- Stephen Canning - Management consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Councillor, Essex county council, Councillor Braintree District Council [5]
- Samuel Chapman-Allen - Councillor, Breckland District Council [5]
- Ann Gisborne - Deputy registrar, Suffolk County Council [5]
- Helen Hill - Councillor, London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames [5]
Political donations
Received
Lewis has received donations from energy firms all over the UK, including Great Yarmouth. This includes £2,000 from Brineflow Properties and Handling Ltd - which provides concentrated sodium and potassium brine for offshore drilling and £10,000 from Offshore Group Newcastle - a firm which provides engineering and construction for oil, gas and renewable energy projects, owned by Russian oligarch Alexander Temerko. He has also received £5,000 from Great Yarmouth business Pasta Foods.
Lewis has said: 'Donations are all recorded on the register of members’ interests and available for scrutiny as per the law, and rightly so. Many donations to parties and candidates are very small ones. These donations, large and small, come from people who support my work for Great Yarmouth and/or want a Conservative government which will continue the work to fix our economy and move our country forward.'[6]
Given
Political Donations
Recorded by the Electoral Commission:
| Date | Name of donor | Amount | Donated to | Subsidiary (parties only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25/09/2008 | Brandon Lewis | £1,205.00 | Conservative Party | Central party |
| 25/09/2008 | Brandon Lewis | £1,205.00 | Conservative Party | Great Yarmouth |
| 26/04/2013 | Brandon Lewis | £21,609.00 | Conservative Party | Great Yarmouth |
Notes
- ↑ Ministerial appointments: July 2014, Prime Minister's Office, 15 July 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Brandon Lewis GOV.UK, accessed 10 October 2014
- ↑ Ruth Hayhurst, Former planning minister backs local decisions on fracking, DrillorDrop, 23 December 2016
- ↑ Peter Lazenby, The Tories are ‘working hand in hand with the fracking industry,’ Labour charges, MorningStar, 11 November 2018, accessed July 2019
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Register of interests of members' secretaries and research assistants, 23 March 2016, parliament.uk, accessed 21 April 2016
- ↑ Annabelle Dickson Second jobs and party donations from energy firms, IT and property companies - what has your MP declared in the latest MP’s register of interests? Eastern Daily Press, 29 October 2014, accessed 20 February 2015
- ↑ Electoral Commission, Donation Search, accessed 20 February 2015
