Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (née Beaton; born 6 April 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 2015.[1] She served as the last Secretary of State for International Development from February to September 2020, stepping down when the Department for International Development was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to create the new department Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).[2] An outspoken Eurosceptic, she resigned as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in November 2018 over the Government's draft EU withdrawal agreement.[3][4]

The Right Honourable Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP
Trevelyan in 2017
Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 January 2021
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 13 February 2020 – 2 September 2020
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Alok Sharma
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister of State for the Armed Forces
In office 16 December 2019 – 13 February 2020
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Mark Lancaster
Succeeded by	James Heappey
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement
In office 27 July 2019 – 16 December 2019
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Stuart Andrew
Succeeded by	James Heappey
Member of Parliament for Berwick upon Tweed
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2015
Preceded by	Alan Beith
Majority	14,835 (35.3%)
Personal details
Born	Anne-Marie Belinda Beaton 6 April 1969 London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	John Trevelyan (divorced)
Children	2
Alma mater	Oxford Polytechnic
Website	Campaign website

Early life and career

Trevelyan was born in London on 6 April 1969,[5] the daughter of Donald Leonard Beaton and Katherine Beaton (née Bougarel).[6] Trevelyan was privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith.[7] She subsequently studied at Oxford Polytechnic.[8]

She qualified as a chartered accountant with Price WaterhouseCoopers in London and worked in PwC's corporate finance department before moving to Northumberland in 1996.[9] She is a former Governor of Northumbria Healthcare Trust[10] and of Berwick Academy. Reports prepared by Trevelyan's "Dual the A1 Campaign" were submitted to the consultation to make the road a dual carriageway.[11][12]

She unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Morpeth North ward of Castle Morpeth Borough Council in 1999. She subsequently stood as the Conservative candidate in the Hartburn ward of Castle Morpeth Borough Council in 2003, but failed to get elected.[13]

Trevelyan unsuccessfully stood in the 2010 general election as the Conservative candidate for Berwick upon Tweed, achieving a swing from the Liberal Democrats to Conservatives of 8.3%. In so doing, she reduced Sir Alan Beith’s majority from 8,632 to 2,690.[14]

Parliamentary career

Backbencher

At the 2015 general election, Trevelyan was elected as the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, gaining the seat for the Conservatives with a 9.6% swing, after the sitting MP Sir Alan Beith stood down. She was re-elected with an increased majority in the 2017 general election.[15]

In June 2015, Trevelyan was appointed Vice-Chairman of the newly created All-Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry.[16] In Parliament, Trevelyan served on the Public Accounts Select Committee between July 2015 and May 2017.[17]

In November 2015, she was appointed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.[18] On 27 October 2016 during Prime Minister's Questions the then-Prime Minister Theresa May praised Trevelyan for her work on the Armed Forces Covenant.[19][20] In January 2018, Trevelyan was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gavin Williamson in the Ministry of Defence.[21]

In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation". According to Parliament's register of interests, Trevelyan was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative government had responded to the amendment that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.[22]

Trevelyan with United States Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy in February 2020

On 16 December 2016 she was appointed Minister for the Armed Forces.[23]

In November 2018, Trevelyan referred Labour shadow minister Kate Osamor to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, on the grounds that Osamor's behaviour "failed to uphold" the code of conduct for MPs, after Osamor continued to employ her son, Ishmael Osamor, as a senior communications, despite her son pleading guilty to possession of drugs valued at £2,500. Osamor denied any wrongdoing and called the referral "politically motivated".[24]

Minister of State for the Armed Forces

As Minister for the Armed Forces she met with the United States Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy at The Pentagon on 11 February 2020.[25]

On 27 July 2019 she was appointed Minister for Defence Procurement in Boris Johnson's administration.[26]

Secretary of State for International Development

On 13 February 2020 Trevelyan was promoted to Secretary of State for International Development to succeed Alok Sharma, who became Business Secretary. Prior to her appointment, Trevelyan expressed apparent scepticism about the value of foreign aid on a number of occasions.[27]

In May 2020 the Labour MP and first British female MP of Chinese descent Sarah Owen criticised Trevelyan for a WhatsApp message of a split fortune cookie, saying "You not have coronavirus", captioned "Just received my Covid-19 rapid test kit from China. Soooooo relieved!", with a follow-up message of "Just for Bob" and a winking emoji referring to Conservative MP Bob Seely, who responded by sending a love heart and smiling emoji. Owen said: "If Anne-Marie Trevelyan doesn't understand why this sort of humour was left in the 1970s, I would be happy to explain it to her." Seely responded to Owen by saying "It was a well-meaning joke at my expense and I didn't think anything of it", referring to his campaign against the Chinese tech company Huawei. Trevelyan responded to Owen by saying "It was not my intent to cause any offence, and I am truly sorry if I did so".[28][29]

After the Beirut explosion of 4 August 2020 the UK government aid-funded UK Emergency Medical Team (UK EMT) were sent to help. The UK also gave £5m in emergency support, £3m of it for the British Red Cross. As International Development Secretar Treveyan represented the UK at a donar event hosted by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanual Macron. [30].[31] [32]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in August 2020 Trevelyan set up the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility, its funding being £4.85 million from UK aid and £2 million from businesses. The premise was that the Department for International Development, UK supermarket and fashion businesses such as Morrisons, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Primark, and charities such as Care UK, The Fairtrade Foundation and the Ethical Trading Initiative, work together to improve working conditions and support access to healthcare and health information for workers in delvoloping countries, with a focus on countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.[33]

Her department was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 2 September 2020, and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab assumed responsibility for a new department named the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. She then left the government.[34][35]

Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth

On 8 January 2021, Trevelyan was appointed Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth.[36]

Positions and campaigns

Voting record

Trevelyan opposes the ban on fox hunting[37] and supports fracking, including voting in support of fracking under Northumberland National Park.[38]

National campaigns

Trevelyan is a member of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and campiagns to improve mental health services for veterans in Northumberland.[39]

Trevelyan campaigns for reducing plastic packaging.[40]

Trevelyan secured the support of life sciences minister George Freeman, who had ensured that the Office of Life Sciences was able to offer as much support as possible for the future.[41]

Local issues

Trevelyan campaigned for dualing the A1 road. In 2007 she set the Dual the A1 campaign group to raise government awareness. In 2014 then-Prime Minister David Cameron announced an initial £290 million investment to upgrade the road.[42]

Trevelyan has campaigned for improving rural broadband.[43]

Trevelyan campaigns for reopening the Harbottle Surgery.[44] and bringing other investment to the county.

In September 2020 commented on the rejection of the opening of an open cast mine at Druridge Bay, a seven-mile stretch of Northumberland Coast from the seaport town of Amble to the village of Cresswell. She said:

This decision from the Secretary of State is incredibly welcome to all of us who have campaigned to protect our precious coastline, and the community in Druridge Bay who have had the spectre of this proposition hanging over them for a number of years. The Prime Minister was clear when he brought forward our goal to stop producing coal to 2024, that this Government will honour its commitments to a cleaner, greener future, and our target of net zero by 2050. This long-fought battle to protect our local environment has been a culmination of years of work by local people, groups and politicians of all parties, coming together to work for the future of their community and I pay tribute to everyone who has played their part in safeguarding our incredible landscape for future generations.[45]

Euroscepticism

In June 2015, Trevelyan joined the Conservatives for Britain group, a Eurosceptic group within the Conservative Party which subsequently moved closer to outright opposition to British membership of the European Union. She later joined the European Research Group – the primary Eurosceptic lobbying group within Parliament.[46] Trevelyan advocated a vote in favour of Brexit for the 2016 EU membership referendum.[47]

In March 2018, she attended a protest in London organised by the Fishing for Leave group against proposed access to British waters for EU fisherman up to 2021. The event included the UKIP MEP Nigel Farage. The Independent reported that Trevelyan faced calls for her sacking as a ministerial aide for attending the event in defiance of an order from Conservative whips for party MPs not to take part.[48] On 15 November 2018, Trevelyan resigned from her post as a Parliamentary Private Secretary over Theresa May's draft EU withdrawal agreement.[3][4]

Political Campaign Finances

In May 2016, it was reported that Trevelyan was one of a number of Conservative MPs being investigated by police in the 2015 general election party spending investigation, for allegedly spending more than the legal limit on constituency election campaign expenses.[49] In May 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service said that while there was evidence of inaccurate spending returns, it did not "meet the test" for further action.[50]

In April 2018, Trevelyan was criticised by the Alnwick Labour Party in the wake of the Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal over claims that a Russian businessman gave almost £50,000 to fund her 2015 general election campaign. The Labour Party questioned why the Conservative Party was accepting large donations from such sources. Trevelyan stated that the man in question was now a British citizen who had invested significantly in the region, while she had personally not received any funds from Alexander Temerko, with funds going to the Berwick-upon-Tweed Conservative Association.[51]

Personal life

Trevelyan lives in London and Northumberland. She is divorced with two teenage children. She previously lived in Netherwitton Hall, a Grade II Listed Country House near Morpeth[52][53] with her former husband John Trevelyan,[54] owner of the Netherwitton Hall Estates.[55][56]

In October 2017, she said that her teenage son might not have voted for her if he had been old enough to vote.[57] She took part in the Singing for Syrians concert at Westminster in December 2017.[12]

References

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3. Sparrow, Andrew (15 November 2018). "May hit by two cabinet resignations as Raab and McVey quit over Brexit plan". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
4. "Anne-Marie Trevelyan resignation letter". Twitter. 15 November 2018. Archived from the original on 15 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
5. "Trevelyan, Anne-Marie Belinda". Who's Who. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.283910. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
6. Burke's Peerage, volume 3 (2003), p. 3,932
7. "TREVELYAN, Anne-Marie Belinda", Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016.
8. Wheatstone, Richard; Wearmouth, Rachel (7 February 2016). "Police 'advised MP not to pursue attempted rape report' due to conviction rates". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
9. "The accountants' election". www.siftmedia.co.uk. 29 April 2010. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
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12. "MP sings at flagship 'Sing for Syrians' concert". Teamtrevelyan.co.uk. 13 December 2017. Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
13. "Castle Morpeth Borough Council Election Results 1973-2007" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
14. "Berwick Tories choose Anne-Marie Trevelyan to be their parliamentary candidate". ConservativeHome. 9 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
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External links

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Dual the A1 campaign group website