Simon Hart

Hart was born in Wolverhampton on 15 August 1963 and grew up in the Cotswolds. He was privately educated at Radley College before attending the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.[6] He worked as a chartered surveyor in Carmarthen and Haverfordwest and served with the Territorial Army for five years in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (part of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry).

Hart was Master and Huntsman of the South Pembrokeshire Hunt from 1988 to 1999. He was director of the Campaign for Hunting (ie fox hunting) from 1999 to 2003. He was the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance from 2003 to 2010, and later its chairman from 2015 to 2019.[7]

He was first elected as the MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire in the 2010 general election, defeating the previous Labour MP Nick Ainger who had represented the constituency and its predecessor since 1992.[8] He was re-elected at the 2015 general election and 2017 general election. In the 2019 general election, Hart more than doubled his previous majority of 3,110[9] to 7,745. He secured 52.7% of the vote, up 5.9 percentage points compared to 2017.[10]

In 2017 Hart faced questions over breaches of the code of conduct and was being investigated over an alleged breach of paragraph 15.[11][12]

In August 2018, Hart accused actress Maxine Peake of hypocrisy, for 'taking money from the NHS for work on an advertisement, whilst attacking the Government for lack of investment in the NHS'. Peake responded that the fee came from an advertising agency and would not have gone back to the NHS if she had returned it, and she had donated the fee to The Salford Foundation Trust children's charity regardless.[13]

On 27 July 2019, in Boris Johnson's administration, he was promoted to Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, with responsibility for policy implementation.[14] He replaced fellow Conservative Oliver Dowden and stood down as Chairman of the Countryside Alliance.[15]

In October 2019 it was reported that Hart was the Welsh MP with the highest expense claims for first-class rail tickets. Official guidance from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority states politicians should "consider value for money" when booking tickets; however, first-class rail travel is still permissible within the expenses rules.[16]

In the run-up to the 2019 general election, Hart shared an image of a campaign placard which had been defaced during the 2017 general election. Referencing the levels of "abuse … vitriol and intimidation" to which candidates had been subjected in 2017, Hart used a Facebook post to call for high standards of conduct among candidates, a subject on which he says he has worked to find cross-party solutions since the 2017 election.[17] However, during the 2019 election campaign, the same sign was shown to have two swastikas newly added, putting Hart under suspicion. Shadow secretary of state for Wales, Christina Rees, asked Hart "did you deface your own signs with swastikas for personal electoral gain? If not, explain how they came to be there. Because right now there appears to be no other rational explanation."[18]

Hart has served on the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee, Welsh Affairs Select Committee, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Commons Select Committee on Standards and Commons Select Committee of Privileges.[19]

Hart lives near Narberth in Pembrokeshire with his wife Abigail and their two children.[25] He employs his wife as his office manager.[26][27][28]

In 2018, Hart found a green heron in his garden in Pembrokeshire, a species native to North America which is rare in the United Kingdom.[29][30]

• Simon Hart MP official constituency website
• Simon Hart MP Conservative Party profile
• Simon Hart MP Welsh Conservative Party profile
• Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire Conservatives
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Profile at the Countryside Alliance
• Official channel at YouTube