Mark Pritchard was first elected as the Conservative MP for The Wrekin in 2005, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 18,726.
The constituency of The Wrekin is found in the east of Shropshire around the 407m high Wrekin Hill. With fast transport links into the West Midlands conurbations, this constituency largely encircles, albeit excludes the town of Telford. A former railway, iron smelting, and mining area, the seat includes the market towns of Shifnal and Wellington and the villages of Albrighton and Cosford.
RAF Cosford, the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, MOD Donnington, the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, and the Army Base Repair Organisation, are all found in this seat. The specialist agricultural university, Harper Adams University is also found here.
The Wrekin was one of the UK’s longest standing marginal seats that changed hands regularly between the parties after the Second World War, doing so in 1945, 1955, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1987, and 2005. However in the last decade this has become safer Conservative territory. Some three fifths of voters backed Brexit here in the 2016 EU referendum. Even before the 2019 landslide, the Conservatives had won here by close to ten thousand in 2010, 2015, and 2017.
Born in 1966, Pritchard grew up in an orphanage and in foster care as a child. He was educated at London Guildhall University and Regents Theological College.
He worked as a marketing consultant, and a press officer for the Conservative Party before being elected to Westminster.
Pritchard backed Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, and supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.
He has previously campaigned to reduce the term limits on abortion, as well as on a number of animal welfare issues.
In 2010 Pritchard was involved in a confrontation with former Commons Speaker, John Bercow, who demanded that Pritchard stand aside in a Commons corridor as he passed. Pritchard reportedly retorted to Bercow that he was not ****** royalty.
A keen footballer, Mark Pritchard used to play for Hereford United Reserves. He still plays for the Parliamentary football team.
Mark Pritchard is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on the Death Penalty (abolition); the Film and Production Industry; Estonia; Lithuania; and Ukraine. He is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Media; Space; Tennis; Tidy Britain; Uyghurs; Albania; the Caribbean; Georgia; Germany; Hong Kong; Jordon; Kosovo; Malta; the Maldives; Romania; Turkey; Vietnam; Betting and Gaming; and Cancer.
According to the Register of Members Interests, Mark Pritchard is Non-Executive Chairman and a Director of PASS Technology Group Ltd (technology solutions)
Email: pritchardm@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.markpritchard.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MPritchardMP
