Jonathan Djanogly

Jonathan Simon Djanogly (born 3 June 1965) is an English politician, solicitor, and Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon since 2001.

Djanogly was privately educated at University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead in North London, followed by Oxford Polytechnic in Oxford, where he was elected chairman of the Conservative Association in 1987, and he earned a Bachelor of Arts in law and politics in 1987.

He took his law finals at the College of Law, Guildford, in 1988.

He joined SJ Berwin, London, in 1988 as a trainee solicitor, was admitted as a solicitor in 1990, and served as corporate finance partner between 1998 and 2009.

Djanogly was elected as a councillor for Regents Park ward in the City of Westminster in 1994 and was re-elected in 1998.

He unsuccessfully contested the seat of Oxford East at the 1997 general election.

Before the 2001 general election he was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe seat of Huntingdon, following the retirement of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir John Major.

Djanogly resigned from his council seat early in 2001, shortly before the general election campaign.

At the 2001 general election, Djanogly held the Huntingdon seat comfortably with a majority of 12,792 votes and has remained as the MP for the constituency ever since.

He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 2 July 2001.

He served on the Trade and Industry Select committee from 2001.

He also campaigned for better protection against animal rights extremists, who had been targeting employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences in his constituency.

In 2004, he was promoted to the frontbench by Michael Howard as an opposition spokesman on Home Affairs, and served as Solicitor General between May 2004 and May 2010.

In 2005 Djanogly was also appointed a shadow Business Minister in the team shadowing the Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom) (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) where until the 2010 general election he worked on corporate governance and business regulations.

Djanogly has been Trade and Industry Spokesman shadowing the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales and was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice from 2010 to 2012.

Djanogly currently serves as a member of the Public Accounts Committee.

Following a vote by local party members, on 21 April 2023 Djanogly announced his decision to not seek re-election as a MP at the next general election.

Djanogly was born in London to a British Jewish family, the son of multimillionaire textile manufacturer Sir Harry Djanogly and Lady Djanogly.

Following the formation of the coalition government Djanogly was named on 14 May 2010 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, a post he held until September 2012.

His role included the oversight of legal aid and legal services, HM Courts Service, as well as the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

As part of the Ministry of Justice's target to reduce its spending by £2 billion, Djanogly was tasked with reducing the legal aid budget by £350 million.

In June 2011, he was one of the Ministers that introduced the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) to Parliament.

On 29 March 2011, Djanogly launched a consultation: "Solving disputes in the County Courts", initiating a general review of civil law procedures, that included; increasing the small claims limit to £10,000, creating a single County Court and extending mediation assessment to all small claims.

In an attempt to counter a perceived "compensation culture" in litigation in September 2011, Djanogly announced the Government's intention to ban referral fees in personal injury claims.

The ban was included in the LASPO Bill, together with provisions preventing the recovery of claimant solicitors' success fees from losing defendants, intended to reform 'no win, no fee' deals.

In October 2011, Djanogly announced non-lawyers would be allowed to invest in and own legal businesses for the first time.

In January 2011 he launched a consultation: "Resolving Workplace Disputes", jointly with Ed Davey MP (who at the time was a Business Minister).

The consultation led to measures which changed the practice and procedure of employment tribunals and how disputes could be resolved without recourse to tribunals.

Since leaving Government in 2012, Djanogly has been elected Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance and Joint Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Responsibility.

Djanogly led the Bill process and it became law on 1 May 2012.

In February 2012, Djanogly proposed a major legal overhaul of the bailiff industry to clamp down on bad practices.

The proposals included a new regulatory body to oversee the industry, a new complaints process for debtors and clear fees so that people know what bailiffs can charge.

In July 2012, Djanogly announced the Government's intention to introduce a certificate declaring someone as 'presumed dead' to help families resolve the affairs of a missing person.

As a shadow Business Minister Djanogly had proposed changes to employment law and continued this in Government.

In July 2012 Djanogly also revealed plans to tailor employment tribunal fees to encourage businesses and workers to mediate or settle a dispute rather than go to a full hearing from summer 2013.

Djanogly said, "It's not fair on the taxpayer to foot the entire £84 million bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal. We want people, where they can, to pay a fair contribution for the system they are using, which will encourage them to look for alternatives."

Bringing a claim or an appeal to the employment tribunal is currently free of charge with the full cost being met by the taxpayer.

Djanogly was opposed to Brexit before the 2016 referendum.

In December 2017 Djanogly voted along with ten other Conservative MPs against the government, and in favour of guaranteeing Parliament a "meaningful vote" on any deal Theresa May agreed with Brussels over Brexit.

In 2017 the impact of these changes was considered to be mixed: they had not delivered the intended reduction in the cost of legal services, but there had been improvements in management arrangements and fee structures.