Giles Francis Watling (born 18 February 1953) is a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician serving as

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 of ...

(MP) for Clacton since

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. Prior to entering politics, he was an actor.

Early life and education

Born in

Chingford Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the ...

to actress Patricia Hicks and actor

Jack Watling Jack Stanley Watling (13 January 1923 – 22 May 2001) was an English actor. Life and career The son of a travelling scrap metal dealer, Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child; and made his stage debut in ''Where ...

, Giles Watling was educated at

Forest School Forest School or Forrest School may refer to: Educational philosophy * Forest school (learning style), a learner centred outdoor learning approach. Religious philosophy * Thai Forest Tradition, a Theravada school of Buddhism in Thailand. * Sri La ...

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

. He is the younger brother of the actress

Deborah Watling Deborah Patricia Watling (2 January 1948 – 21 July 2017) was an English actress who played the role of Victoria Waterfield, a companion of the Second Doctor in the BBC television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1967 to 1968. She began her career as ...

and the younger half-brother of actress

Dilys Watling Dilys Rhys Watling ('' née'' Jones, 5 May 1942 – 10 August 2021) was an English actress, best known for appearing on British television ('' Coronation Street'', ''The Benny Hill Show'' and ''The Two Ronnies''). Early life and education Wat ...

Career

Watling has worked extensively in the British theatre and on television, but is probably best known for the role of the vicar Oswald in

Carla Lane Romana Barrack (5 August 1928 – 31 May 2016), known professionally as Carla Lane, was an English television writer responsible for several successful British sitcoms, including ''The Liver Birds'' (co-creator, 1969–1979), ''Butterflies'' (19 ...

's series ''

Bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

''. He has also directed several UK touring theatre productions. He took on the role of Bob in the UK Tour of 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' in 2013, and serves on the board of directors at The Royal Theatrical Fund, a charity in aid of any person in need who has professionally practised or contributed to the theatrical arts. He was a Conservative councillor for Frinton ward on

Tendring District Council Tendring is a village and civil parish in Essex. It gives its name to the Tendring District and before that the Tendring Hundred. Its name was given to the larger groupings because it was at the centre, not because it was larger than the other ...

, having been first elected in the

2007 United Kingdom local elections The 2007 UK local government elections were held on 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same ...

. On 10 September 2014 he was shortlisted in the Conservatives' Clacton open primary to decide the party's candidate against

Douglas Carswell John Douglas Wilson Carswell (born 3 May 1971) is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave and currently serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. ...

in the

Clacton by-election The 2014 by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Clacton in Essex, England, took place on 9 October 2014. The by-election was triggered by the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defecting to the UK Independence Party (UK ...

and was adopted following a public meeting on 11 September 2014. He lost the by-election in 2014 and the general election in 2015, but was elected in the general election in 2017. Compared with a 24.6% share of the vote he took in the 2014 by-election, his vote share was 72.3% in the 2019 general election. Following an interim report on the connections between

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

and properties now in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, including links with historic slavery, Watling was among the signatories of a letter to ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' in November 2020 from the "

Common Sense Group The Common Sense Group is an informal group of Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who advocate a broad range of ideals that they think the Conservative Party and the country ought to be following. The group was inspired by the euro-sceptic ...

" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by

cultural Marxist The term "Cultural Marxism" refers to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims that Western Marxism is the basis of continuing academic and intellectual efforts to subvert Western culture. The conspiracy theory misrepresents the ...

dogma, colloquially known as the '

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...

agenda'".

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watling, Giles 1953 births English male stage actors Living people People from Chingford People from Loughton 20th-century English male actors English male television actors Male actors from London Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Essex British actor-politicians 21st-century English male actors UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present People educated at Forest School, Walthamstow Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies