Julie Marson (born 23 March 1965) is the former Member of Parliament for Hertford and Stortford. She served as an Assistant Government Whip from October 2022 to November 2023, having previously held the office from July to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she also served as

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment The Minister of State for Employment is a mid-level position in the Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government ...

between July 2022 and September 2022. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford and Stortford in the 2019 general election. She was defeated at the

2024 general election This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2024 United Nations Security Council election * 2024 national electoral calendar * 2024 local electo ...

, with Labour candidate Josh Dean elected as the new MP.

Early life and career

Marson was born in

Barking, London Barking is a riverside town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is east of Charing Cross. The total population of Barking was 59,068 at the 2011 census.If defined as the Abbey, Eastbury, Gascoigne, L ...

and previously worked in finance. She was educated at Woodford County High School for Girls and

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

. Prior to becoming an MP, she worked in corporate banking for

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

Political career

Marson was previously a councillor on Thanet District Council in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, representing the Viking ward from

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. She has also served as a magistrate. She contested the Labour-held East London seat of

Dagenham and Rainham Dagenham and Rainham is a parliamentary constituency in Greater London that was created in 2010. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 2024 by Margaret Mullane and was previously represented from 2010 by J ...

at the 2015 general election, finishing in third place. She stood again two years later, at the 2017 snap election, this time finishing in second place and increasing her vote share by 16%. On 24 October 2019, the Hertford and Stortford

Conservative Association A Conservative Association (CA) is a local organisation composed of Conservative Party members in the United Kingdom. Every association varies in membership size but all correspond to a parliamentary constituency in England, Wales, Scotland and N ...

chose Marson to succeed the incumbent MP

Mark Prisk Michael Mark Prisk (born 12 June 1962) is a British politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford and Stortford from 2001 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Minister of State for Business and Enterprise from ...

as their candidate in what has generally been considered a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

for the Conservative Party. At the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

on 12 December 2019, Marson was elected as the MP for Hertford and Stortford, with a majority of over 19,000. After the 2022 government crisis, she was appointed

. She answered her first questions as a minister in the House of Commons on 11 July. In April 2023, she failed to be automatically reselected for the

by her local party executive following a vote. After a ballot of party members she was reselected.

Political positions

Marson supported Leave in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. On 8 June 2020, she called for a global ban on wet markets. Later that month, Marson called for LGBT+

conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...

to be banned, labelling it "morally and medically wrong." Marson has supported the ''Turn on the Subtitles'' campaign, raising it at

Prime Minister's Questions Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention (political custom), constitutional convention in the United Kingd ...

. Marson has supported initiatives promoting women in STEM and businesses.

Personal life

Marson lives in Kent and is married with a son. She also has a blonde

cockapoo The cockapoo, also known as a cockerpoo (both portmanteaus of ''cocker spaniel'' and ''poodle'') or a spoodle, is a dog crossbreed bred from the Cocker Spaniel and the Poodle, most commonly the Miniature Poodle. History The cockapoo was first ...

dog named Boris.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marson, Julie 1965 births Living people UK MPs 2019–2024 21st-century British women politicians Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Barking, London People from Hertford Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies 21st-century English women 21st-century English politicians Politicians from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham British Eurosceptics