Joy Morrissey

Joyce Rebekah "Joy" Morrissey (née Inboden, 30 January 1981) is an American-born British politician who has served as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire since 2019.

Morrissey has been a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury since November 2023.

At the 12 December election Morrissey defeated former Conservative Dominic Grieve, who had represented Beaconsfield since 1997 and contested the seat as an independent.

Upon election she became the third ever American-born female MP, after The Viscountess Astor and Beatrice Rathbone.

Before doing so, in 1999 and 2000, Morrissey undertook humanitarian work in Albania, Kosovo, China and India, helping refugees, working in an orphanage and teaching English.

Before her election to Parliament she worked at the Centre for Social Justice, as a Parliamentary staffer, and was elected a Councillor in Ealing.

Morrissey was born in Indiana, in the United States.

She attended Worthington Christian High School in Ohio and graduated in 1999.

Morrissey received a master's degree specialising in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics.

After completing her postgraduate studies, Morrissey attained British citizenship and is now a British-American dual national.

In the late 2000s, Morrissey had a brief acting career.

Under the name Joy Boden she appeared alongside Marisa Tomei in a TV movie titled The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud, which she also produced, and which her now-husband directed.

After becoming a mother, she decided not to return to the film industry, stating that she "actually looked at going back to get (her) PhD in International Development but got involved with the local Ealing Conservatives".

Morrissey grew up in the United States, moving to the United Kingdom in 2008 to attend the London School of Economics.

She was a London-wide list candidate at the 2016 London Assembly election, but was not elected.

Morrissey contested Ealing Central and Acton at the 2017 general election.

The seat was one of a number in London which had been marginal before the election, but the seat saw a large swing towards the incumbent Labour MP Rupa Huq.

In 2018, she sought nomination to be the London Conservatives mayoral candidate for the 2021 London mayoral election, making it through to the final three shortlist; Morrissey was ultimately not selected.

In 2019, Morrissey was selected as the new Conservative candidate for Beaconsfield.

Morrissey was an elected a Conservative councillor on Ealing Council, where she represented the ward of Hanger Hill (named after the area of the same name) until April 2020.

In 2020, Morrissey was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

In 2021, she was appointed PPS to the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab.

In 2022, she was appointed as a PPS to the Prime Minister, working alongside Lia Nici and James Duddridge.

On 15 December 2021, Morrissey tweeted criticising the influence that unelected public health officials were able to exert on public policy during the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that policy decisions should be made by those accountable to the public.

Morrissey endorsed Liz Truss in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

Morrissey was appointed Assistant Government Whip on 8 July 2022 by the outgoing Johnson administration.

On 8 September 2022 she was reappointed an Assistant Government Whip as part of the new Government of Prime Minister Liz Truss, one of very few people to make the transition from the Johnson to the Truss administration.

Joy Morrissey was one of the final ministerial appointments approved by Queen Elizabeth II.

On 27 October 2022 Morrissey was reappointed an Assistant Government Whip once again by her third Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

She is one of only three MPs to be reappointed in three consecutive Conservative governments as a whip.

In June 2023, she was one of six Conservative MPs to vote against censuring Boris Johnson following the Commons Privileges Committee investigation.

In November 2023, Morrissey celebrated the decision by the British government to block the development of a data centre on the site of a former quarry next to M25.