Julia Lopez

Julia Louise Lopez (née Dockerill; born June 1984) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been both Minister of State for Data and Digital Infrastructure and Minister of State for Media, Tourism and Creative Industries since 2023.

From 2006, a researcher in the parliamentary office of then-MP for Cities of London and Westminster and Conservative Party Vice-Chairman, Mark Field, she became his chief of staff and co-authored two of his books Between the Crashes and The Best of Times.

Lopez has also worked as a ghostwriter.

The seat was previously held since its creation in 2010 by Conservative MP Angela Watkinson who had also represented the earlier constituency of Upminster since 2001.

In 2014, Lopez was elected a councillor for St Katharine's and Wapping Ward on Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.

Whilst Lopez was Field's parliamentary aide she was photographed in November 2016 carrying confidential notes on a Brexit-related meeting in Downing Street which indicated that the UK would not stay in the single market, and would not seek a transitional deal with the EU.

Lopez supported Brexit in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

She has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornchurch and Upminster in Greater London since the 2017 general election.

Before entering the House of Commons, she served as a local councillor on the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, and a parliamentary aide.

Lopez previously served as Minister of State for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure from September 2021 to July 2022, and again from September 2022 to February 2023.

Julia Louise Dockerill was born at Harlow and grew up in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, with her two sisters.

Her mother was a primary school teacher and her father was a businessman.

After Bentfield Primary School, she attended the Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, before going up to Queens' College, Cambridge, where she read Social and Political Sciences.

In April 2017, she was selected as the Conservative candidate for Hornchurch and Upminster.

Lopez was elected to Parliament at the 2017 general election with a majority of 17,723 (31.6%) votes.

From September 2017, she sat on the Parliamentary International Trade Select Committee.

Married since September 2017 to Lorenzo Lopez, the couple have two children.

She voted against then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019.

In the indicative votes on 27 March, she voted against a referendum on a withdrawal agreement.

In October, Lopez voted for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement.

At the December 2019 general election, she was returned with 65.8% of the vote, and an increased majority of 23,308 (43.2%) votes.

A Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from February 2020 to September 2021, Lopez was appointed Minister of State for Media and Data in the 2021 British cabinet reshuffle.

On 6 July 2022, Lopez resigned from government, citing Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow Ministers Kemi Badenoch, Neil O'Brien, Lee Rowley and Alex Burghart.

She then supported Kemi Badenoch in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

In September 2022, Prime Minister Liz Truss reappointed her to government as a Minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

In October 2022, she was reappointed by Truss' successor as PM Rishi Sunak.

In April 2023, it was announced that Lopez was to take maternity leave from her ministerial posts, under the terms of the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Act 2021, to be temporarily replaced by Sir John Whittingdale.