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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lola Christina Alao

Who is Esther McVey? MP returns to represent Tory right at Cabinet table

In her first major intervention since being appointed by Rishi Sunak, Esther McVey has revealed she is launching investigations into poor use of taxpayers' money.

She wrote in the Daily Mail that she vows a crusade against public cash being wasted on the likes of equality consultants while families are being forced to tighten their belts. 

The MP for Tatton also pledged to back civil servants so they do their jobs and deliver results instead of 'hand-wringing' and constantly worrying about making mistakes.

"As we approach 2024, I believe one of the Government's New Year resolutions should be to ensure all parts of the public sector embrace common sense instead of political correctness," Ms McVey says.

Tory MP Esther McVey, was given the role of minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office after a reshuffle last month. New party chairman Richard Holden told Times Radio she was there to "represent a part of that broad panoply of opinion that the Conservative Party represent".

Her husband, fellow Tory MP Philip Davies, vowed she would take on the "Blob" and "put a stop to some of the nonsense that we see". 

Who is Esther Mcvey?

Esther Mcvey was born in Liverpool in 1967 and spent the first two years of her life in a Barnardo's foster home as her young parents didn't have the money to look after her.

She told the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast that she said she didn't feel any resentment towards her family for their decision.

"That, to me, is love at its utmost - knowing you can't look after someone as much as you'd like to so you dare to give up your little child."

She was educated at the fee-paying, independent (at the time) Belvedere School. She went on to study law at Queen Mary University of London (LLB) and radio journalism at City, University of London (MA).

While waitressing in a showbiz restaurant in London, she decided she wanted to be a TV presenter instead pursuing a career in law.

In the course of her media career she worked on a range of programmes, including a documentary about naturists on Channel 5, the religious Heaven and Earth Show on BBC One and ITV's breakfast show GMTV.

In the early 2000s, she began pursuing a career in politics and in 2010 won the Merseyside seat of Wirral West for the Conservatives. From 2012 to 2013, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Work and Pensions, working under Iain Duncan Smith.

She lost her seat in the 2015 election, but returned to Parliament two years later as the MP for the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. She was made work and pensions secretary in Theresa May's government.

After being dismissed from Boris Johnson's ministerial team in 2020, she returned to her media career. She co-hosts shows Friday and Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip on GB News.

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