Philip Davies MP |
|
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Shipley |
|
Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
|
Preceded by | Chris Leslie |
Majority | 9,624 (19.0%) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Philip Andrew Davies 5 January 1972 Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Deborah Helmsley (m. 1994; div. 2012) |
Children | 2 |
Alma mater | University of Huddersfield |
Website | www.philip-davies.org.uk |
Philip Andrew Davies (born 5 January 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire.
He was born in Doncaster and studied History at Huddersfield. Davies worked for Asda as a Customer Services Manager and Marketing Manager and later worked at Marilyn Davies Bookmakers and Mark Jarvis Bookmakers. First elected at the 2005 general election, he is the most rebellious serving Conservative MP, having voted against the Tory whip over 250 times in the course of his parliamentary career, and he has been criticised for his use of the filibuster to "kill off legislation he doesn’t like".
Davies is on the governing council of The Freedom Association pressure group, and is an organiser for the Taxpayers' Alliance. Davies has regularly been criticised by other politicians and prominent public figures for comments he has made on gender equality and women, homosexuality, ethnic minorities and the disabled. He is currently under investigation for his links with the gambling industry, something for which he has previously apologised to Parliament.
Born in Doncaster, Davies' father is Peter Davies, a former elected Mayor of Doncaster. He was educated at the Old Swinford Hospital school, Stourbridge, and at Huddersfield Polytechnic (which became Huddersfield University in his third year). He was awarded a 2:1 BA Hons degree in History and Political Studies in 1993. Originally he wanted to be a journalist, but told Katy Balls for a January 2017 Spectator article: "It was my ambition in life but I just realised I was too shy. You’ve got to have a confidence that I think I probably never had".