Mark Rory Logan (born 28 January 1984) is a former British politician. He served as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton North East between

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, although he has since left the Conservatives and joined the Labour Party.

Early life and career

Mark Logan was born and grew up in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

. He graduated from

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, and then earned two master's degrees, one from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and the second from

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

. Before becoming an MP, he worked in the British Consulate-General in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

as a locally engaged member of staff, where he was responsible for media and communications. Logan also worked for the Chinese conglomerate Sanpower Group; prior to that, he worked as a fundraiser for the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Political career

At the snap 2017 general election, Logan contested East Antrim for the Conservative Party, coming in sixth place with 2.5% of the vote, behind the incumbent DUP MP Sammy Wilson, Alliance's Stewart Dickson, the UUP's John Stewart, Sinn Fein's Oliver McMullan, and the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...

candidate. Logan was elected as MP for Bolton North East at the 2019 general election, winning with 45.4% of the vote and a majority of 378. Logan is a campaigner for a direct train link from Bolton to London.

APPGs and Commons Select Committees

During his Parliamentary career, Logan was the Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Afghanistan and Vice Chair of APPGs on British Council, China and Japan. In 2024, Logan was amongst the delegation attending the 40th annual meeting of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group convened in Tokyo and Odawara, Kanagawa. Logan served on the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee during the onset of the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Committee's work was central to scrutinising government and industries' response to the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK. He is also a founding member of the Parliamentary Export Programme

webinar Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conference, conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of ...

series, which seeks to help local businesses increase international sales.

Parliamentary Private Secretary Career: 2022–2024

Logan was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

in March 2022. This was notable in that he was the only Northern Irish accent in the Conservative party and government of the day, the last being Brian Mawhinney in 2005. On

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

becoming the monarchy, Mark created a media storm by giving his Parliamentary oath in

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect (whose proponents assert is a dialect of Scots language, Scots) spoken in parts ...

. He resigned on 6 July 2022 in protest at Boris Johnson's conduct in the Chris Pincher scandal, calling his position "almost impossible". On 15 November 2022, Logan was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) for 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 of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

by Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

Resignation from the Conservative Party

On 30 May 2024 he announced he planned to vote for the Labour Party, citing ideological differences with the Conservative Party. He was not a candidate at the

2024 United Kingdom general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a lan ...

Foreign Policy and International Engagements

Of Conservative MP's Logan was one of the most vocal since the outbreak of violence on October 7th 2023. In a House of Commons debate on Gaza, Logan quoted the ICC saying that "Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival" and urged the British Government that "Never mind being on the right side of history; will we ensure that we are on the right side of the present?" Logan is one of the leading experts in Chinese politics and UK-China relations within UK politics. He is a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese and also speaks some Shanghai dialect. Expanding on his Asia expertise, Logan is also currently learning Japanese.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, Mark Living people UK MPs 2019–2024 Place of birth missing (living people) Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Politicians from County Antrim Civil servants in the Foreign Office 1984 births People educated at Ballymena Academy