Craig Tracey
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Craig Tracey MP |
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Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire |
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Assumed office 8 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Dan Byles |
| Majority | 2,973 (6.28%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Craig Paul Tracey 21 August 1974 Durham, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Karen Mercer-West (m. 2014) |
Craig Paul Tracey (born 21 August 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Warwickshire since his election on 7 May 2015. Originally from the North East, Tracey settled in North Warwickshire in 1997. After serving as a parish councillor he was selected as the Conservative Party's parliamentary candidate for North Warwickshire in 2014. He unexpectedly increased the Conservative majority in the constituency despite not being the favourite to win. Tracey has been a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee since July 2015, and co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Insurance and Financial Services since July 2016.
Tracey was born in Durham, and attended the city's Framwellgate Moor Comprehensive School. His mother's family were from a mining background while his father was one of fifteen children. Tracey's father came to England from Ireland during the 1960s, while his mother is a native of the North East. Tracey describes himself as half Irish and half Geordie. His parents founded a business in Durham, and after leaving school at 17, Tracey started his own insurance broker's business in 1996, at the age of 21. He moved to North Warwickshire in 1997, settling in the village of Shuttington. Shortly before his 2015 election to the House of Commons Tracey sold his Lichfield-based business, Dunelm Insurance, to Academy Insurance of Berkshire.
Tracey served as a parish councillor in Shuttington, and chaired North Warwickshire Conservatives in 2012–13. He was selected by secret ballot to contest the North Warwickshire constituency for the Conservatives in September 2014, after the sitting MP, Dan Byles, decided not to re-contest the seat. He has stated that one of the things that prompted him to go into politics was the way he felt small businesses were treated by government during the recession of the late 2000s: "As a small business owner I definitely felt the impact of the recession. I personally felt that the government did not understand what it was like and then there was the added burden of increased regulation on top of that." In January 2015 Matthew Engel of The Financial Times described Tracey as "a complete newbie, the sort of candidate who hardly happens these days" and "totally apolitical until seven years ago when he became increasingly incensed about the effect on his business of EU regulation and Labour indifference".
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