Mark Pritchard (politician)
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Mark Pritchard MP |
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Member of Parliament for The Wrekin |
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Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Peter Bradley |
| Majority | 10,743 (23.6%) |
| Councillor (Harrow London Borough Council) | |
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In office 1993–1994 |
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| Councillor (Woking Borough Council) | |
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In office 2000–2003 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 November 1966 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | London Guildhall University |
| Website | markpritchard.com |
Mark Andrew Pritchard (born 22 November 1966) is a British Conservative politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for The Wrekin in Shropshire since the 2005 general election.
Pritchard was brought up and educated in Herefordshire. He remarked on BBC Radio 4 that he comes from an "unorthodox background" for a Conservative MP. For the first five years of his life he was brought up in an orphanage in Hereford, and later grew up in foster care living in a council house. He told his local newspaper that his early years were years of "love and warmth" and that he did not have "a single bad memory" of his time in the orphanage.
Pritchard began his political career as a Conservative councillor on Harrow London Borough Council between 1993-1994. He then served as a Conservative councillor on Woking Borough Council between 2000–2003. In the 2001 general election, Pritchard stood as the Conservative candidate for Warley in the West Midlands where he was defeated by John Spellar of the Labour party.
Pritchard was first elected to parliament for The Wrekin constituency in 2005, defeating Peter Bradley, the incumbent Labour MP, by just 942 votes although this represented a 5.4% swing from Labour to Conservative. He was one of 130 candidates who received help from 20,000 countryside campaigners from the Countryside Party who "poured into marginal seats all over Britain" in an attempt to unseat anti-hunting Labour MPs. During the campaign pro-hunt supporters "delivered 3.4 million leaflets, addressed 2.1 million envelopes, put up 55,000 posters and provided 170,000 hours of campaigning." Pritchard was also one of 30 Conservative MPs who benefited from large "below the radar" donations paid to candidates from a secret Conservative Party donors' fund set up by Lord Ashcroft, Lord Steinberg and the Midlands Industrial Council.
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