Jackie Doyle-Price

Dame Jacqueline Doyle-Price (born 5 August 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician and former civil servant.

Jacqueline Doyle-Price was born on 5 August 1969 on a council estate in Sheffield.

Growing up in an apolitical working class family, her father Brian was a bricklayer whilst her mother Kathleen worked part-time as a sales assistant at Woolworths.

She was raised in the suburbs of Hillsborough and Wisewood.

She attended Notre Dame Roman Catholic High School, a comprehensive school.

Doyle-Price's interest in politics began when she was 14 years old.

Her parents attempted to buy their council house through Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme and faced resistance from the left-wing Sheffield City Council, which was run by the Labour Party under the local leadership of David Blunkett.

Doyle-Price claimed that its left-wing councillors did "everything they could to bully my parents into not buying their council house", and one of her left-wing teachers encouraged her to build upon her new-found interest and participate in politics, suggesting that she "go out and participate in democracy".

Following the council's alleged "intimidation of her parents", Doyle-Price joined the Conservatives to campaign for people to buy their council homes in 1986.

Doyle-Price read economics and politics at Durham University.

Her constituent college was University College.

Doyle-Price graduated in 1991.

Shortly after graduating from university, Doyle-Price became a researcher before spending 18 months moving between temporary jobs and unemployment.

In 1992, she was employed by the South Yorkshire Police as an administrative officer, which became her first permanent job.

She also worked for the Sheffield Enterprise Agency.

From 1993 to 2000, after working for the South Yorkshire Police, she was employed at the City of London Corporation as an assistant parliamentary officer, and from 2000 to 2005 she was an assistant private secretary to the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

From 1994 to 1997, she was Treasurer of the National Association of Conservative Graduates, and she sat on its national executive.

At Durham, she participated in political activism and joined its student Conservative Association where she worked as an officer with Graham Brady, who would later become a Conservative MP in 1997.

In the 1997 general election, the national party employed her as a press secretary, and from 1997 to 1998 she served as the chairwoman of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association.

From 2005, she worked as an associate policy adviser and consumer advocate for the Financial Services Authority, leaving this job in 2010 to focus on her parliamentary campaign in Thurrock.

Doyle-Price held several posts in the Conservative Party before her election to parliament.

Doyle-Price first stood for election to parliament in the 2005 general election, where she was the Conservative candidate for Sheffield Hillsborough and came third with 15.02% of the vote behind the Labour MP Angela Smith and the Liberal Democrat candidate.

She was constituency officer of the Greenwich and Woolwich Conservatives from 2006 to 2007 and stood unsuccessfully for election to Greenwich Council.

She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Thurrock in the 2010 general election.

In September 2022, she was appointed Minister of State for Industry by Prime Minister Liz Truss, and returned to the back benches following the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister in October 2022.

At the 2010 general election, Doyle-Price was elected as MP for Thurrock with 36.8% of the vote and a majority of 92.

Doyle-Price made her maiden speech on 28 June 2010, speaking about the need for welfare reform.

She was prepared to publicly challenge ministers on behalf of her constituents, particularly on transport issues connected to the Dartford Crossing and on the Government postponement of work to improve Junction 30 of the M25.

In May 2012 she was elected Chairman of the All-Party Gurkha Welfare Group.

In May 2013 Doyle-Price voted against same-sex marriage on its third reading in the House of Commons, having abstained at the second reading.

Doyle-Price stated after the vote that whilst she supported equality for same-sex couples, she regarded marriage as a sacrament, and would have voted in favour of a bill which "sought to equalise civil partnership with civil marriage".

She also stated that she would reconsider her position if the bill was amended.

Doyle-Price was a co-sponsor of the private member's EU membership referendum bill that was given a second reading on 5 July 2013.

On 14 January 2014, she led a debate in Westminster Hall on options for the new Lower Thames Crossing.

At the 2015 general election, Doyle-Price was re-elected as MP for Thurrock with a decreased vote share of 33.7% and an majority of 536.

Doyle-Price was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU membership referendum.

In the House of Commons she has sat on the Public Accounts Committee and Committee of Selection and Women and Equalities Committee.

At the snap 2017 general election, Doyle-Price was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 39.5% and a decreased majority of 345.

In 2019, Doyle-Price abstained on a bill to legalise gay marriage in Northern Ireland.

At the 2019 general election, Doyle-Price was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 58.6% and an increased majority of 11,482.