Julie Kirkbride

Julie Kirkbride
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Shadow Minister for the Olympics (from 2005)
In office 6 November 2003 – 8 December 2005
Leader	Michael Howard David Cameron
Preceded by	John Whittingdale
Succeeded by	Hugo Swire
Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove
In office 1 May 1997 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Roy Thomason
Succeeded by	Sajid Javid
Personal details
Born	5 June 1960 (1960-06-05) Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Andrew MacKay (married 1997)
Domestic partner	Stephen Milligan (died 1994)
Children	One son
Residence	Bromsgrove and Westminster
Alma mater	Girton College, Cambridge

Julie Kirkbride (born 5 June 1960, Halifax, West Yorkshire) is a British former politician. She was the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for the Conservative stronghold of Bromsgrove from 1997 until 2010

Early life

Her father was a lorry driver, who died when she was seven. Her mother was a secretary at Rowntree Mackintosh (now owned by Nestlé). She went to the Highlands School (now North Halifax Grammar School) in Illingworth, Halifax. She studied at Girton College, Cambridge from 1978–81, receiving a MA in Economics and History, and serving as vice-president of the Cambridge Union Society in 1981. From 1981-2, she worked as a journalist for the Parliamentary Weekly House Magazine. She went to the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California Berkeley from 1982-3. She was researcher for Yorkshire Television from 1983-6, then a producer for BBC News and Current Affairs from 1986-9, then worked as a producer at the ITN Parliamentary Unit from 1989-92. She was the political correspondent of The Daily Telegraph from 1992-6 and social affairs editor of The Sunday Telegraph from 1996 until 1997.

Parliamentary career

In 1997 general election Kirkbride was elected MP of Bromsgrove, a seat which had consistently been Conservative since the 1970s. She was re-elected in 2001 election and 2005 election with over 50 percent of votes.

Julie Kirkbride was the Conservative spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport from 2003 to 2004, but was replaced in a reshuffle by the party leader at that time, Michael Howard.

On 10 November 2006, it was revealed that she had previously undisclosed links with the Midlands Industrial Council, which has donated millions of pounds to the Conservative Party.

She stood down as a Member of Parliament prior to the 2010 general election, as a result of public anger over her expenses claims.

Expenses claims

Main article: United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal

On 14 May 2009, her husband Andrew MacKay, the Conservative Member for Bracknell, resigned from his position as parliamentary aide to David Cameron, in the wake of the furore over Parliamentary expenses after what was described as an "unacceptable" expenses claim.

MacKay and Kirkbride own two homes: one in her constituency of Bromsgrove; and a flat close to Parliament in Westminster. In a case of so called double-dipping, according to The Daily Telegraph, Mackay had used his Additional Costs Allowance to claim more than £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on their joint Westminster flat – even though he did not have a residence in his Bracknell constituency – while Kirkbride used her Additional Costs Allowance to claim over £900 a month on paying off the mortgage for their family home near her constituency. "This means," reports The Daily Telegraph, "they effectively had no main home but two second homes – and were using public funds to pay for both of them". In 2008/9, MacKay claimed a total of £23,083 under Additional Costs Allowance, while Kirkbride claimed £22,575. They also claimed for each other's travel costs, with Kirkbride claiming £1,392 to meet spouse travel, while MacKay claimed £408.

Julie Kirkbride employs her sister at taxpayers' expense as her secretary despite her sister living 140 miles from the constituency. Kirkbride also extended her mortgage to pay for a £50,000 extension to her house, which she said was to provide a separate bedroom for her son, and claimed for this on expenses. She said she allowed her brother to live rent free in her house some of the time so that he could care for her son, Angus, while she undertook constituency work in the evening. Kirkbridge also suggested that criticism of her expense claims could deter women from entering Parliament.

On 28 May 2009 Kirkbride cancelled a meeting in her Bromsgrove constituency to discuss the expense claims, and news was announced that owing to public and press criticism of her expense claims, she intended to stand down at the next election. In a letter to Cameron, she said, "My principal concern has to be for my very loyal local supporters in Bromsgrove whose trust in me has been very humbling in the last few weeks ... I also must take into account the effects on my family." A petition in the Bromsgrove constituency demanding Kirkbride's resignation had amassed over 5,000 signatures. Kirkbride also lost the trust of Tory activists: the results of a poll on the ConservativeHome website showed that 81% of those responding (a self-selecting sample) thought Kirkbride should go and only 6% that she should remain as a Conservative MP. Shortly before her decision to stand down, she had stated that it never crossed her mind that she was doing anything wrong; however, she was also quoted as saying that it was "hugely upsetting to realise I have let people down".

On 5 November, she reversed her decision, telling a meeting of the Executive Council of Bromsgrove Conservative Association that she wanted to be considered as their candidate for the next general election. On 18 December she announced she would indeed stand down, in a Christmas and New Year message on her website saying "this is entirely my decision".

The Legg review of MPs expenses declared that Kirkbride had to pay back £29,243 in wrongly claimed expenses, the fifth highest total of all MPs. Kirkbride's husband Andrew MacKay had to pay back £31,193, ranking third. Both MPs had paid back the amount in full by the time of the release of the report on 4 February 2010. Kirkbride was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.

Personal life

She was engaged to Conservative MP Stephen Milligan before his death by auto-erotic asphyxiation in 1994. In August 1997, she married Andrew MacKay MP, the Conservative Member for Bracknell, and they have a son (born October 2000).

External links

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Julie Kirkbride" article dated 2007-04-24, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Julie Kirkbride Official website
• Bromsgrove Conservatives
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile: Julie Kirkbride BBC News, 21 October 2002
• The Page 3 Debate, BBC News, 14 January 2003
• Interview: Julie Kirkbride, Ben Davies, BBC News, 4 October 2004
• West Midlands: Industrial dosh..., Nick Watson, The Politics Show at BBC News, 10 November 2006

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Roy Thomason	Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove 1997- 2010	Succeeded by Sajid Javid