Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (born 16 January 1957) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rugby from the 2010 general election until stepping down at the 2024 general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party. His father, Jim Pawsey, was the MP for Rugby from 1979 to 1983 and then for Rugby and Kenilworth until 1997, when he lost the seat in 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 ...

to Labour's Andy King. On 5 December 2022 Pawsey announced his intention not to stand for re-election in the 2024 general election.

Education and early career

Mark Pawsey grew up in Binley Woods,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England, and was educated at Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby. He later attended the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

, where he earned a degree in

estate management Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and moni ...

. In 1982, he founded a company with his brother, supplying products to the catering trade, which was later bought by an

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most market capitalisation, highly capitalised ...

company.

Local government

Pawsey was elected as a Councillor for the Conservative Party for Dunchurch and Knightlow on the Rugby Borough Council in 2002. He served on planning, borough development and housing panels and was portfolio holder and cabinet member for Housing.

House of Commons

Pawsey resigned from his position as a councillor upon selection in January 2007 for the new parliamentary constituency of Rugby and was a member of the

A-List An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in a film industry. The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry ...

. Pawsey was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 2010 for Rugby with a majority of 6,000 votes. He was reelected in 2015 and 2017 with majorities of 10,345 and 8,212. Pawsey served on the Communities and Local Government Committee, having taken over from George Freeman, between 2010 and 2015. He was also a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014 and has been a member of the all-party groups on manufacturing, microbusinesses, packaging, small business, sewers and sewerage and rugby union. He played for the Lords & Commons rugby club and is currently also secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speedway Racing. In December 2012, Pawsey spoke out against allowing same sex people to marry by suggesting that it may lead to lower levels of heterosexual people getting married. He said in the House of Commons: "Given that marriage rates in Spain and Holland collapsed after the introduction of same-sex marriage, does she aria Millernot fear that in this country even fewer couples intending to have children will choose to marry?" Research later showed that Pawsey's evidence base for making his suggestion was problematic. Since becoming an MP Pawsey has campaigned against various measures to limit the tobacco industry. In 2012 Pawsey set up, and became Chair, of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Packaging Manufacturing Industry, with one of objectives of this APPG is "to address issues facing the industry from regulation". Pawsey was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum. In July 2017, Pawsey was accused of hypocrisy by opponents after he voted against an Opposition Party amendment to end a below inflation public sector pay cap – one week after saying concerns over wages needed to be addressed in a letter to his local newspaper. Pawsey defended voting against Labour's amendment, stating: "It was gesture politics by Labour as this was not a vote on primary legislation." In 2017, he said that he would support repealing the ban on

fox hunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of hounds" ...

Personal life

He is married to Tracy and they live in the village of Grandborough,

, and London. They have four children.

References

External links