James Brokenshire

James Peter Brokenshire (8 January 1968 – 7 October 2021) was a British politician.

James Peter Brokenshire was born on 8 January 1968, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

His father was a council chief executive.

He was educated at Davenant Foundation Grammar School in Loughton and then at the Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies.

After this he studied Law at the University of Exeter.

Brokenshire subsequently worked at the international law firm Jones Day.

In this position, he advised on company law, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance transactions.

Brokenshire was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornchurch from 2005 to 2010, and for Old Bexley and Sidcup from 2010 until his death in 2021.

Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Brokenshire studied law at the University of Exeter before beginning work with a large international law firm.

Deciding on a career in politics, he stood successfully as the Conservative candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Hornchurch in the 2005 general election.

When his constituency was to be abolished in the boundary changes, he sought out another constituency to represent, failing to be selected in six until being selected for Old Bexley and Sidcup.

Brokenshire was elected at the 2005 general election to the parliamentary constituency of Hornchurch, defeating the Labour candidate and incumbent member John Cryer by 480 votes.

The election itself resulted in a third successive term for Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Labour government.

From 2005 to 2006, Brokenshire was a member of the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Select Committee.

From 2006 to 2010, he then served as the Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction.

Brokenshire knew that his constituency, Hornchurch, would be dissolved for the next election.

In November 2006, he applied for selection as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Witham in Essex, but was defeated by Priti Patel.

He simultaneously campaigned to be selected as Conservative candidate for the constituency of Hornchurch and Upminster, but in March 2007 was defeated there by Angela Watkinson.

He next applied for Gillingham and Rainham in July 2007, Grantham and Stamford in October 2007, North East Cambridgeshire in January 2008, and Maidstone and The Weald later that same month.

He was unsuccessful in all of these attempts.

Derek Conway, the member for the Conservative safe seat of Old Bexley and Sidcup in southeast London, was embroiled in an expenses scandal and resigned, after which Brokenshire put his name forward as a potential replacement.

His competitors for the seat were Rebecca Harris, Katie Lindsay, and Julia Manning, and he was successful in gaining the selection for the seat in June 2008.

He was described as a "serial carpetbagger" by a local single issue party, Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital.

He was elected MP for the seat in 2010.

In the 2010 general election, Brokenshire was elected for Old Bexley and Sidcup with 24,625 votes (53.93%), beating the Labour candidate Rick Everitt, in second place with 8,768 votes (19.21%).

Voter turnout was 69.13%.

Upon victory, Brokenshire announced that his priority would be to prevent the proposed closure of accident and emergency services at local Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup.

With no party gaining an overall majority in the House of Commons, the 2010 election resulted in the formation of a coalition government consisting of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, led by Conservative prime minister David Cameron.

The new prime minister appointed Brokenshire as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Crime Reduction in the Home Office.

In David Cameron's first government, Brokenshire was initially Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Crime Reduction; in May 2011, he was transferred to the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Crime and Security.

He oversaw the closure and privatisation of the Forensic Science Service and championed the Modern Slavery Bill.

One of his first moves was to initiate the closing of the UK's Forensic Science Service; it had been making operational losses of £2 million a month and was predicted to go into administration in early 2011.

He served as Minister for Security and Immigration at the Home Office from 2014 to 2016.

A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Theresa May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018 and then as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2018 to 2019.

He also served as a minister at the Home Office under David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

In July 2016, he was appointed Northern Ireland Secretary in Theresa May's new cabinet.

He resigned in January 2018 on health grounds and was replaced by Karen Bradley.

In April 2018, he was appointed Communities Secretary, following Sajid Javid's appointment as Home Secretary as a result of Amber Rudd's resignation.

In 2020 he was appointed by Boris Johnson as Minister of State for Security at the Home Office.

He stepped down from this post in July 2021 due to lung cancer and died in October of the same year.