Marco Longhi
Marco Andrea Longhi[1] (born 22 April 1967)[2] is a British landlord and Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North since 2019.
Marco Longhi | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait in 2020 | |
| Member of Parliament for Dudley North | |
| Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Ian Austin |
| Majority | 11,533 (31.4%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 April 1967 Walsall, Staffordshire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Website | marcolonghi |
Early life
Longhi was born in Walsall and grew up in Rome, the son of an Italian airline worker, Antonio Longhi, and a British mother, Josephine Clarke. He trained as a pilot and later studied at Manchester University, following this by working for a time in civil engineering.[3] He then worked in the oil and gas industry, which included five years in South America.[4]
Political career
In 1999, Longhi was elected as a Conservative councillor in Walsall (where his grandfather Wilfred Clarke had been Mayor in 1978), and became Mayor in 2017 and again in 2018.[3] In the 2005 general election he ran for election in Dudley South, gaining an increased vote share but losing to the Labour incumbent by around 4,000 votes.
He ran in Dudley North at the 2019 general election, gaining the seat after the incumbent, Ian Austin (independent, formerly Labour), stood down.[5] He is the first Conservative to represent Dudley North, which had previously returned a Labour candidate since its creation.[6]
On 22 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the first ever MP to speak in the Commons chamber via remote video link,[7] asking a question of the Wales Secretary, Simon Hart.[8]
Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Longhi was among the signatories of a letter to The Daily Telegraph in November 2020 from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[9]
On 23 August 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Longhi as the UK's trade envoy to Brazil.[10]
In May 2022, Longhi called for “Stop Brexit Man” Steve Bray to be “locked up in the Tower with a loudspeaker playing "Land of Hope and Glory" on repeat at maximum volume” because of the disruption he causes. He added that Bray was “griping for any little bit of press coverage” and claimed that staff in his Westminster office could not hear “distressed constituents on the phone” because of the loud music that Bray played.[11]
In June 2022, Longhi, in a private message directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, about the government's Rwanda asylum plan, said, "Archbishop, as you appear to feel so strongly about this, will you give up two of your palaces for illegal migrants and pay for their accommodation?"[12]
Longhi endorsed Kemi Badenoch during the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[13] After Badenoch was eliminated, he backed Liz Truss.[14]
In October 2022, following the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Longhi announced that he would be supporting previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the subsequent leadership election.[15]
Longhi was made honorary president of right wing pressure group Turning Point UK in November 2022.[16] The group reportedly has links to the far-right, including conspiracy theorists such as InfoWars.[17]
Business career
Longhi was the director of property management company Justmove (Lettings) Limited, and owns ten houses in Walsall.[1][18]
References
- "JUSTMOVE (LETTINGS) LIMITED - Officers". Companies House. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
- Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019: the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
- Madeley, Peter (1 November 2019). "Brexiteer Marco Longhi sets sights on Parliament in Dudley North campaign". Express & Star. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- "About Marco". Marco Longhi. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- "Dudley North parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- "Election history of Dudley North". Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- Poole, Danielle. "Marco Longhi MP makes history by asking first question in virtual Parliament". Worcester News. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- "Welsh minister attacks Raab over target comments". BBC News. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- "Britain's heroes". Letter to the Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - "PM announces new Trade Envoys to boost British business around the world". gov.uk (Press release). 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- Lynch, David (11 May 2022). "MP calling for protester to be locked in the Tower is 'griping for coverage'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
- Maddox, David (15 June 2022). "'Give up your palaces for migrants!' Tory MPs demand of Archbishop to end trafficking". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
- Madeley, Peter (12 July 2022). "Tory leadership race: Early favourite among region's MPs as nominations deadline looms". Express & Star. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
- "Next Tory Leader. Which MP is backing whom – the updated list. Truss on 149, Sunak on 132. The Foreign Secretary's lead amongst MPs grows". ConservativeHome. 25 August 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
- "Who is backing Boris Johnson in the Conservative leadership race?". ITV News. 21 October 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
- @marcolonghi4dn (6 November 2022). "Delighted to become President of Turning Point U.K." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Walker, Peter (4 February 2019). "Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- "Marco Longhi MP, Dudley North". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
External links
