Paul Masterton (born 2 November 1985) is a

Scottish Conservative Party The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 30 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Par ...

politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire (; ) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It was formed in 1996, as a successor to the Eastwood (district), Eastwood district of the Strathclyde region. The northeastern part of the council area is close to Glasgow and ma ...

from 2017 to 2019.

Early life

Masterton was born on 2 November 1985 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He attended Buckstone Primary School and

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a Scottish education in the eighteenth ...

. He went on to graduate with a law degree from the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

in 2007.

Career

After completing his Diploma in Legal Practice in 2008, Masterton obtained a traineeship with the law firm

McGrigors McGrigors LLP was a UK Top 50 law firm with offices in six British cities as well as Qatar and the Falkland Islands. The firm merged with international law firm Pinsent Masons in 2012. History * 1769 – John Maxwell (of Dargavel), known as ...

, working in their Glasgow and Belfast offices. In 2010, Masterton became a newly qualified solicitor specialising in Pensions and long-term savings, continuing to work with McGrigors, latterly

Pinsent Masons Pinsent Masons LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London. The firm has been cited among the UK's leading legal brands and ranks among the top hundred law firms in the world by turnover. Pinsent Masons LLP has over 490 partners, a ...

, for 9 years, until his election.

Parliament

Before entering the House of Commons, Masterton first stood in the 2016

Scottish Parliament election The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. It is a democratically elected body and its role is ...

as the

candidate for Paisley. He was unsuccessful, receiving 3,533 votes. In the 2017 general election, Masterton was the

candidate for

. Masterton received 21,496 votes, defeating the SNP's Kirsten Oswald by 4,712 votes. In Parliament, Masterton was the Co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on British Jews and Surgical Mesh, and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation. He was an active member of a number of other APPGs including those on Surrogacy, Pensions, Equitable Life, Post Offices and Single Parents. Between September 2018 and March 2019, Masterton served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministerial Team at the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

. Masterton resigned from this role on 13 March 2019 in order to vote against the Government and oppose the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without a deal on 31 March 2019. As a former pensions solicitor, Masterton was vocal campaigner on pension issues. In October 2018, he brought a 10 Minute Rule Bill to introduce a new form of pension scheme into the UK, known as Defined Collective Contribution. This followed the agreement between

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

and the Communication Workers Union to establish such a scheme for Royal Mail workers in replacement of their final salary scheme. The Bill was adopted as Government policy and a consultation into Collective Defined Contribution Schemes was launched by the DWP in November 2018. In April 2019, Masterton led a debate highlighting the impact of the tapered annual allowance on senior clinical staff who were members of the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Pension Fund. Masterton worked closely with the BMA and NHS Employers, successfully lobbying the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Treasury, to make changes to the Scheme and launch a review into the operation of the annual allowance taper. On 12 December 2018, during Prime Minister's Questions, Masterton raised the death of a 13-year-old constituent who committed suicide as a result of cyberbullying. Masterton continued to campaign on the issues of self-harm and suicide prevention in young people, and successfully campaigned for the inclusion of a statutory duty of care on technology companies in the Government's

Online Harms White Paper The Online Harms White Paper is a white paper produced by the Government of the United Kingdom, British government in April 2019. It lays out the government's proposals on dealing with "online harms", which it defines as "online content or activit ...

. Masterton voted Remain in the

2016 EU Referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

and was a vocal supporter of securing a withdrawal agreement from the European Union. In November 2017, Masterton was listed by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' as one of fifteen Tory "Brexit mutineers", within a week he had received an anonymous Christmas card describing him as a "traitor". In line with his party's position, Masterton was opposed to a second Scottish independence referendum. For the 2019 general election, Masterton stood again for the

seat but was defeated by Kirsten Oswald who was re-elected as the SNP candidate with a majority of 5,426 votes (9.8%) – larger than her previous majority in 2015. Masterton is no longer a member of the

, and now works as a civil servant at the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

Personal life

Masterton has two children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Masterton, Paul 1985 births Alumni of the University of Dundee Living people People educated at George Watson's College Scottish Conservative MPs Scottish solicitors UK MPs 2017–2019