Richard Benyon

Benyon contested the Newbury constituency at the 1997 general election but lost heavily to the 1993 by-election incumbent Liberal Democrat David Rendel. Benyon and Rendel contested Newbury again at the 2001 general election, and Rendel came out again as the victor with a reduced majority. He and Rendel again contested Newbury at the 2005 UK general election and Benyon was elected with a majority of 3,460, replacing Rendel.

Benyon made his maiden speech on 20 May 2005 and served on the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2005 to 2007, when he became an Opposition Whip. He was the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2009 until the 2010 general election when he entered government. He was also one of the first 15 MPs to support David Cameron's Conservative Party leadership bid.

In May 2009, he was listed by The Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" in the expenses scandal exposed by that newspaper.[13]

Benyon was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the first Cameron Ministry.[14] and remained in post until a ministerial reshuffle in October 2013.[15]

In 2012, while Wildlife Minister, Benyon refused a request from other MPs that possession of carbofuran, a deadly poison used to kill raptors that is banned in Canada and the European Union, should be made a criminal offence.[16] Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was quoted as saying: "The minister's shocking refusal to outlaw the possession of a poison used only by rogue gamekeepers to illegally kill birds of prey would be inexplicable were it not for his own cosy links to the shooting lobby".[16]

In December 2012, Benyon's neighbours complained when Hanson Aggregates were given permission to extract 200,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year from woodlands on Benyon's family estate, leading it to be described as a 'bombsite'.[17] Benyon said that the estate was controlled by a family trust.[17]

In 2013, Benyon succeeded in preventing any cuts in fishing quotas. He said that if British fishermen had their quotas cut they would dump even more fish overboard, and the more fish they are allowed to catch, the better it will be for "the health of our seas". Back in 2004, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution proposed that 30% of the United Kingdom's waters should become reserves preventing fishing or any other kind of extraction.[18]

Also in 2013, Benyon's policy relating to access to rivers and his role as an owner of fishing rights was criticised. Writing in The Guardian, George Monbiot wrote that Benyon "repeatedly wields his power in ways that promote his own interests" and being "so enmeshed in potential conflicts of interest that were he to recuse himself from all the issues in which he has a personal stake, he would have nothing to do but order the departmental paperclips".[19]

In 2014, Benyon's family firm was part of a property consortium that purchased New Era estate, one of the last affordable housing estates for working-class Londoners. The consortium increased the rents and announced plans to increase them further to match the rest of the market, effectively displacing its current residents.[20] Following negative publicity and protests by the tenants, Benyon Estate announced that it would sell its stake in the consortium back to the landlord, Westbrook Partners, a New York–based property investment company.[21][22]

Benyon was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 European Union membership referendum.[23] On 16 December 2016, he was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.[24]

In 2017, Benyon was accused of nepotism by Private Eye after he hired his sister, Catherine Haig, as a part-time researcher while an MP as a part-time senior researcher in his office just before a parliamentary ban on such practices came into force.[25] In 2019 he was one of 21 Conservative MPs who lost the whip for supporting the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019.[26] He stood down in the general election called thereafter.[27]

On 3 September 2019, Benyon - along with 20 other Conservative MPs - had the Conservative whip removed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after voting against the government and supporting an emergency motion to allow the House of Commons to undertake proceedings on the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill. Benyon sat as an independent MP until he had the Conservative whip restored on 28 October 2019.

According to The Register of Members' Financial Interests, as at 21 January 2019, he was paid £15,000 per annum by the UK Water Partnership, a not-for-profit company set up to promote the interests of the UK water sector. He received donations amounting to £8,250 in 2018, from Philip Lavallin Wroughton (three payments amounting to £7,000) and from Chris Gent (a single payment of £1,250).[28]

Benyon stood down as Member of Parliament for Newbury at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

In January 2021, Benyon was raised to the House of Lords by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, styled Baron Benyon, of Englefield in the Royal County of Berkshire.[29]

On 13 May 2021, Lord Benyon was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity, following the resignation of Lord Gardiner of Kimble.[5] On 25 October 2022 Rishi Sunak promoted him and appointed him as a Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.