Thomas David Simpson (born 16 February 1959) is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, who was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Upper Bann from 2005 to 2019. On 6 November 2019 Simpson announced that he would not be standing for re-election in the 2019 general election. Simpson had previously been a

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ga, Comhaltaí den Tionól Reachtach; sco-ulster, Laa-Makkan Forgaitherars) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly. About The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 ...

(MLA) for Upper Bann, from 2003 to 2010.

Political career

Simpson was first elected to

Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Borough Council was a local council in counties Armagh, Down and Antrim, in Northern Ireland. It merged with Armagh City and District Council and Banbridge District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Nort ...

in 2001 and served as mayor in 2004–2005. In the 2001 general election Simpson stood unsuccessfully against

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

leader

David Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He wa ...

in the parliamentary constituency of Upper Bann. In 2003 he was elected a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

(MLA) for Upper Bann.

In Parliament

Simpson won the parliamentary seat from Trimble in the 2005 general election and retained his council seat. He was re-elected to the Assembly in 2007 but resigned from the Assembly and from Craigavon Borough Council after being returned to Westminster in the 2010 general election. Simpson used parliamentary privilege in 2007 to accuse

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

MLA Francie Molloy of involvement in the 1979 killing of Simpson's cousin, a former police officer. He alleged that Molloy had been an informer working for the British state within the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

. Molloy denied both claims. Simpson was a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Commons Committee on Statutory Instruments (2006–2009).Parliamentary biography
and the

Transport Select Committee The Transport Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Transport and its asso ...

(2007–2009). He joined the

Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee (or simply the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee's remit is to examine the expenditure, administr ...

in 2009. He has been DUP Spokesperson on Trade and Industry (2005–2007), Transport (2007–2009), Young People (2007–2010), International Development (2007–2010), and Business, Innovation and Skills (2009 to present), Communities and Local Government (2010 to present) and Education (2012 to present). In his role as DUP Spokesperson on Communities and Local Government, Simpson called on the Government to take action against cyberbullying including the consideration of legislation to make cyberbullying an offence. Simpson is a former member of the Orange Order, in which he was Deputy Master of

Loughgall Loughgall ( ; ) is a small village, townland (of 131 acres) and civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the historic baronies of Armagh and Oneilland West. It had a population of 282 people (116 households) in the 2011 Censu ...

District. He is a proponent of creationism, and his former election agent and constituency assistant, David McConaghie, who had played a key role in Simpson's 2005 election victory, was until late 2012 a prominent spokesperson for the Caleb Foundation which represented creationist and socially conservative

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

views. He spoke and voted against the UK Government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in February 2013 stating that "this is not the jurisdiction of this house ..this is an ordained constitution of God, and that'll end in 'In the garden of Eden it was

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

it wasn't Adam and Steve.'" The Bill covers

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

as family law is devolved in

. Simpson is also a supporter of homeopathy, having signed several

early day motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House a ...

s in support of its continued funding on the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

sponsored by Conservative MP David Tredinnick.

Personal life

Simpson went to the Birches Primary School six miles north-west of Portadown, and then to

Killicomaine Junior High School Killicomaine Junior High School is a controlled school in Portadown, Northern Ireland. It accepts male and female pupils following primary education. Children attend for three years and generally transfer to either Portadown College or Craigavo ...

in Portadown. He later studied at the College of Business Studies in Belfast (now

Belfast Metropolitan College Belfast Metropolitan College, also known as ''Belfast Met'', is a further and higher education institution in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The college offers both vocational education and academic qualifications. With over 37,000 enrolments and ...

) and worked in the Universal Meat Company in Portadown. Simpson is married with a son and two daughters, and lives in Portadown. He is also involved in youth work and drugs rehabilitation programmes. In 2018, after 30 years of marriage, Simpson reportedly left his marital home after allegations of his having an affair were published in a newspaper. Subsequently, the woman involved wrote an apology and her husband forwarded some of the 11,000 texts that Simpson had sent during the affair to Simpson's wife. The husband was later sacked for "gross misconduct" from his employment as a sales executive with the meat company owned by Simpson and his wife.

References

External links

*
Profile
at Democratic Unionist Party

BBC Politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, David 1959 births Living people People from Moy, County Tyrone Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party MPs Christian creationists Mayors of Craigavon Members of Craigavon Borough Council Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Upper Bann People from Portadown UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 People educated at Killicomaine Junior High School Democratic Unionist Party MLAs