Virginia Crosbie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Citation bot (talk | contribs) at 11:13, 1 December 2022 (Alter: title. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by BorgQueen | Category:Articles with unsourced statements from December 2022 | #UCB_Category 94/219). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Virginia Crosbie
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byAlbert Owen
Majority1,968 (5.4%)
Personal details
Born (1966-12-08) 8 December 1966 (age 57)
Maldon, Essex, England
Political partyConservative
Children3
Alma mater
Websitewww.virginiacrosbie.co.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Virginia Ann Crosbie (born 8 December 1966)[1] is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ynys Môn since the 2019 general election. Prior to her political career, she worked as a director at UBS and HSBC before retraining as a mathematics teacher.

Early life

Crosbie was born in Maldon, Essex, to an English mother and Welsh father,[2] and grew up in the village of Tiptree, where her mother worked at the Tiptree Jam Factory.[3] She attended Colchester County High School.[3] As a teenager, she worked as a dolphin trainer at the Woburn Safari Park for Terry Nutkins's BBC children's television series Animal Magic.[3][4] She studied microbiology at Queen Mary University of London before completing a diploma in management studies at the University of Westminster.[5] After graduating, Crosbie worked for Glaxo Wellcome before becoming a pharmaceutical analyst at the bank UBS.[3][6] She became a director at UBS and later at HSBC. She then retrained, and became a part time mathematics teacher.[4][6]

She is a former Chair of Save the Baby at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. She was a Director of Women2Win,[7] helped to launch the charity IntoUniversity and worked as a coach mentor for ParentGym.

Parliamentary career

Crosbie contested the Rhondda constituency as the Conservative candidate in the 2017 general election. She finished third behind the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru candidates.[8] She then became the deputy chair of the Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservatives Association, and the director of Women2Win, an organisation which campaigns for more female Conservative parliamentarians.[9][10] She also worked as a senior parliamentary researcher for Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.[5][6]

She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Ynys Môn on 14 November 2019 (the day when nominations closed).[11] Crosbie was chosen after the former Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies, the previously selected candidate, withdrew the day before due to opposition by the local association, and other Welsh Conservatives.[12] She was elected as MP for Ynys Môn at the 2019 general election with a majority of 1,968 (5.4%).[13] The constituency had been represented by a Labour Party MP since the 2001 general election.[14] She is the first Conservative MP to represent this three-way marginal seat since 1987.[15]

In January 2020, Crosbie tabled an early day motion about the protection of the Welsh language.[16] From February 2020 to August 2021, she was the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department of Health and Social Care.[17][18] Crosbie has been a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee since 2020 and sat on the Women and Equalities Committee between March and September 2020.[19][20] In July 2020, Crosbie apologised for errors on her Welsh language website, stating that the machine translation was "not 100% perfect". She said she was learning the Welsh language and working on a fully bilingual website.[21]

In January 2021, Crosbie began a campaign to get 100 people in Anglesey trained in mental health first aid.[22] She runs a long term campaign to find Anglesey's Hidden Heroes which she launched in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.[23] She has campaigned locally for improved broadband connectivity,[24] and better availability of defibrillators.[25]

In 2020, Crosbie started the Anglesey Freeport Bidding Consortium[26] following the UK Government's announcement that at least one freeport would be established in Wales. She sponsored Anglesey County Council's bids for the Community Renewal Fund (leading to an award of £2.7m for Anglesey)[27] and Levelling Up Fund.[28] In 2022 she held an adjournment debate on the impact of the sudden closure of the Menai Suspension Bridge by the Welsh Government.[29]

Since beginning her career as an MP, Crosbie has made the case for building new nuclear power stations in the UK. With the MP for Copeland, Trudy Harrison, she established the Nuclear Delivery Group[30] with stakeholders including the NIA and NNL and she set up and chairs the APPG for SMRs.[31] She has been vocal in her support of setting up a new nuclear plant on the site of Wylfa on Anglesey[32] and held an adjournment debate on Nuclear Energy Policy: Climate Change in 2020.[33]

From September 2021 to July 2022, she was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales.[34] Crosbie resigned as PPS in July 2022 in protest against the leadership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.[35] She endorsed Sajid Javid in the first rounds of the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[36]

She tabled a Ten Minute Rule Bill to amend the Protection of Livestock Act to legislate for better control of dogs around livestock[37] and sponsored a Private Members Bill amending the Employment Act – the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill.[38]

She has sat on the following: Agriculture Bill Committee, Domestic Abuse Bill Committee, British Sign Language Bill Committee, Environment Bill Committee, ARIA Bill Committee, Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill Committee, Health and Care Bill Committee, Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Committee and Welsh Grand Committee.[citation needed]

Crosbie is a Disabled Children's Champion.[39]

Personal life

Crosbie is married and has three children.[3][4] Her brother Simon died of suicide in 2018 at the age of 52.[40]

After her election, she committed to learning the Welsh language and passed her entry level speaking examination in July 2021.[41]

In March 2021, Crosbie said she had reported around 30 threats, abusive emails and social media posts to the police since being elected as an MP.[42] Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Crosbie said she had received violent threats on social media including threats of being hanged and poisoned.[43]

References

  1. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  2. ^ "Plaid Cymru retain Arfon as Ynys Mon gained by the Conservatives". The Bangor Aye. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e Oldershaw, Lauren (21 March 2018). "Former Colchester School girl Virginia Crosbie leads campaign to get more women in politics". Daily Gazette. Colchester: Newsquest. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  4. ^ a b c "General Election 2019: Meet Wales' first female Tory MPs". Election 2019. BBC News. BBC. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  5. ^ a b Bodkin, Henry (16 December 2019). "Ten new MPs to watch: New Tory intake includes quiz show king and Prue Leith's speech-writer son". The Daily Telegraph. London. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". Politics Home. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  7. ^ Crosbie, Virginia (26 January 2019). "Virginia Crosbie: Mentoring is a very Conservative way to change someone's life". Conservative Home.
  8. ^ "Rhondda – 2017 Election Results". General Elections Online. Parliament of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  9. ^ Crosbie, Virginia (20 August 2019). "A Conservative victory depends on women voters". ConservativeHome. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  10. ^ "About Us". Women2Win. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  11. ^ "Meet the first female Conservative MPs in Wales". ITV News Wales. 13 December 2019. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Tory Chris Davies withdraws from seat after criticism". Election 2019. BBC News. BBC. 13 November 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019. A former MP who lost his seat following a conviction for a false expenses claim has quit the general election after briefly becoming the Conservative candidate for Ynys Mon. Chris Davies pulled out after other Welsh Tories criticised his selection.
  13. ^ "Ynys Môn". Election 2019. BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. ^ "Labour MP Albert Owen to stand down at next election". BBC News. BBC. 14 August 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  15. ^ "Ex-Plaid Cymru leader seeks to return as Ynys Mon MP". BBC News. 24 April 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  16. ^ "EDM 53: Protecting the Welsh language". UK Parliament. 13 January 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  17. ^ @VirginiaCrosbie (26 February 2020). "Honoured to have been appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to support ⁦@MattHancock⁩ and Ministers in the ⁦@DHSCgovuk⁩. Hoping to use my background in healthcare to help improve outcomes for patients across the UK" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 26 February 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ "Parliamentary Private Secretaries – April 2020" (PDF). Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  19. ^ "Welsh Affairs Committee membership agreed". parliament.uk. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  20. ^ "Women and Equalities Committee membership agreed". parliament.uk. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  21. ^ "Conservative MP apologises for Welsh website translation errors". BBC News. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  22. ^ "First goal achieved in Anglesey Mental Health 100 Campaign". North Wales Chronicle. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  23. ^ "Our Hidden Heroes". Virginia Crosbie.
  24. ^ "Better Broadband for Ynys Môn". Virginia Crosbie.
  25. ^ "Save a life. Find a defib". Virginia Crosbie.
  26. ^ Hughes, Owen (2 December 2020). "Holyhead Freeport status bid to be made by island consortium". Business Live.
  27. ^ "Ynys Môn receives more than £2.7m from the UK Community Renewal Fund". North Wales Chronicle.
  28. ^ Spridgeon, Dale (9 August 2022). "The £22m plan to turn around town with some of Wales' most deprived areas". North Wales Live.
  29. ^ "Menai Suspension Bridge: Impact of Closure".
  30. ^ "MP hosts Nuclear Delivery Group meet". www.thefreelibrary.com.
  31. ^ "All Party Parliamentary Group on Small Modular Reactors".
  32. ^ "Anglesey MP is commended for her support of the Wylfa Newydd project". InYourArea.co.uk. 9 June 2021.
  33. ^ "Nuclear Energy Policy: Climate Change (Virginia Crosbie Excerpts)". www.parallelparliament.co.uk.
  34. ^ "Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie says new Wales Office role will help her 'champion our precious union'". Nation.Cymru. 21 September 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  35. ^ "Ynys Môn MP Virginia Crosbie resigns from UK Government, tells Johnson his position is 'untenable'". Nation.Cymru. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  36. ^ Spridgeon, Dale (12 July 2022). "Virginia Crosbie backs Sajid Javid in the race to replace Boris Johnson". North Wales Live.
  37. ^ "Anglesey MP updates members on her work to tackle livestock attacks". www.nfu-cymru.org.uk.
  38. ^ "Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill".
  39. ^ "Is your MP a Disabled Children's Champion?". Disabled Children's Partnership.
  40. ^ Mosalski, Ruth (16 January 2022). "'I've texted my brother since he took his own life and his loss drives me every day'". Wales Online. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  41. ^ "Conservative MP Virginia Crosbie passes Welsh language speaking exam". Nation.Cymru. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  42. ^ "Conservative MP hits out at 'cowardly' online abuse". Cymru News. 30 March 2021.
  43. ^ "Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed". BBC News. 9 November 2022.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn
2019–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virginia_Crosbie&oldid=1124948944"