James Cleverly

James Spencer Cleverly (born 4 September 1969) is a British Conservative politician and Army Reserve officer.

Cleverly currently serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Braintree and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was the member of the London Assembly for Bexley and Bromley from 2008 to 2016. He was first elected at the 2015 general election and was re-elected at the 2017 snap election.

A Eurosceptic, he supports pro-Brexit campaign Leave Means Leave.

Early life and education
Cleverly was born in Lewisham Hospital, southeast London, to a British father and mother from Sierra Leone. He was privately educated at Riverston School and Colfe's School, both in Lee, London. After a short stint in British Army (which was cut short due to injury), he gained a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management from Thames Valley University.

Before being elected he worked in the magazine and web publishing industry.

Military service
On 6 October 1991, Cleverly was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, Territorial Army, as a second lieutenant (on probation). In January 1993, his commission was confirmed and he was made a substantive second lieutenant. He was promoted to lieutenant on 6 October 1993, to captain on 26 May 1998, and to major on 1 November 2003. Until 2005, he was Officer Commanding of 266 (Para) Battery Royal Artillery (Volunteers). Promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 March 2015, Cleverly is currently based at Central Volunteers HQ Royal Artillery, in Woolwich, London, and is a Staff Officer in the 1st (UK) Armoured Division.

Unsuccessful candidacy
Cleverly had previously stood unsuccessfully in a number of elections for the London Borough of Lewisham; including the borough council elections of 2002, a borough council by-election in 2003, for the Lewisham East seat for the UK Parliament in the 2005 general election and as the Conservative candidate for the directly elected mayor of Lewisham in 2006.

London Assembly
In March 2007, Cleverly was selected as the candidate for the Bexley and Bromley constituency of the London Assembly in a very tightly fought selection contest. The London Assembly election was held on 1 May with the count and declaration on the 2 May, where he received 105,162 votes (52.6% of the vote) and a majority of 75,237.

In January 2009, Cleverly was appointed as the Mayor of London's Youth Ambassador, a newly created role which was seen as being a replacement post for the Deputy Mayor for Young People, a post left vacant after the resignation of Ray Lewis. The creation of the role caused some controversy as it was not filled by a mayoral appointment but by a member of the assembly whose formal role is to scrutinise the Mayor. The decision was defended because of the precedent set by the appointment of Kit Malthouse as Deputy Mayor for Policing.

In February 2010, Cleverly was appointed as the Chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board, replacing Boris Johnson who had stood down. After the defeat of Brian Coleman at the 2012 London elections he was appointed to the Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

In November 2010, Cleverly was re-selected to be the Conservative candidate for Bexley and Bromley in the 2012 GLA elections, going on to win the seat with 88,482 votes (once again 52.6% of the votes) and a majority of 47,768. Following his election to parliament in 2015, he did not defend his seat at the 2016 assembly election.

2015 and 2017 general elections
In January 2015, Cleverly was selected to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Braintree in the 7 May general election, after the sitting Conservative MP Brooks Newmark stood down following controversy over sexting and the sending of obscene images online. His selection came after the initial selection process was quietly suspended by CCHQ, after the local party chose someone not on the approved candidates list and was told to ‘think again’. He was subsequently elected as the constituency's MP. He advocated a Brexit vote in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Cleverley was re-elected, with an increased majority (62.8% of the votes cast), as Braintree's MP on 8 June 2017 at the general election.

Controversy
In August 2010, Cleverly posted a tweet in which he called Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes "a dick". The full tweet stated: "We may be coalition partners but it doesn't stop me thinking Simon Hughes is a dick." He later apologised.

In October 2013, Cleverly advocated scrapping the minimum wage at a fringe event within the Conservative Party Conference. In a newspaper article that followed the controversial comments, Labour politician Sadiq Khan was quoted as saying: "Millions of hard-working people are suffering under the Tory cost of living crisis and their answer is to scrap the minimum wage, a policy that helps thousands of low-paid people in London. No wonder people think they’re out of touch."

In November 2015, Cleverly was criticised for pushing through the closure of 10 fire stations in London after the death of an elderly man in Camden following delays in the arrival of fire crews. In response, Cleverly said: "It is impossible for them to say that with certainty. I think it would be much wiser for the FBU to wait for the details of that fire investigation to come out before they start making these opportunistic allegations."

In March 2016, Cleverly was asked to step down as patron of Advocacy for All, a charity supporting disadvantaged people in South East England. The charity felt he was no longer a suitable person for the role, given that he had voted to cut ESA (the benefit paid to disabled people who are unable to work).

In October 2018, Cleverly defended Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey over potentially Islamophobic and Hinduphobic comments he had made in a pamphlet and suggested that Bailey was implying that black boys were drifting into crime as a result of learning more about faiths other than "their own Christian culture".

Personal life
Cleverly married Susannah Janet Temple Sparks in 2000; the couple have two sons, Freddy and Rupert. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live he said that he had previously watched online porn, had taken illegal drugs as a student and is an atheist.

Honours and decorations
Cleverly was awarded the Efficiency Decoration (TD) for 12 years commissioned service in the Territorial Army in January 2012, as well as the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.



Offices held