Peter Timothy Fortune (born August 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bromley and Biggin Hill since the 2024 general election.

Career biography

Early life

Fortune was raised on a

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

and went to Bishop Thomas Grant School in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

. After school, he worked in the UK and abroad before moving to

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

in 2006 to start a family. He then worked at the '' News Shopper'' and other

Newsquest Newsquest Media Group Limited is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom. It is owned by the American mass media holding company Gannett. It has 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in pr ...

local press titles while his wife was a teacher at local primary schools.

Bromley Council

Fortune was elected to Bromley Council as a

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

for Cray Valley East from

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

. He was a councillor for Hayes and

Coney Hall Coney Hall is an area of Greater London, within the London Borough of Bromley, Greater London and formerly in the historic county of Kent. It is located south of Hayes, west of Keston, north of Nash, and east of West Wickham of which it is ...

ward from

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. From 2017 to 2021, he was Deputy Leader of Bromley Council.

London Assembly

He was the member of the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

(AM) for Bexley and Bromley from

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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 ...

. Fortune was elected as Deputy Leader of the London Assembly Conservative Group in May 2021.

Parliamentary elections

Fortune stood as the Conservative candidate for Lewisham East in the 2015 general election and the 2017 general election receiving 22.3% and 23.0% of the vote respectively and placing second both times behind Labour's Heidi Alexander. He was the Conservative candidate for Leeds Central in the 2019 general election, receiving 22.6% of the vote and finishing second behind long-term incumbent Hilary Benn. In March 2024, Fortune was selected as the Conservative candidate for the newly-created constituency of Bromley and Biggin Hill for the 2024 General Election. He was elected with a small majority of 302 votes (0.6%), narrowly edging the Labour candidate, Oana Olaru-Holmes.

Member of Parliament

His constituency of Bromley and Biggin Hill is the 6th most marginal Conservative-held seat in the country. He has been a member of the Public Accounts Committee since October 2024. In the

2024 Conservative Party leadership election The 2024 Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his intention to resign as Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader follo ...

which was lasted from July to November 2024 he backed

James Cleverly Sir James Spencer Cleverly (born 4 September 1969) is a British politician and Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Army Reserve Commissioned officer, officer who served as Home Secretary from November 2023 to July 2024 and as Foreign Secretary (Unit ...

(who was also the London Assembly member for Bexley and Bromley from 2008 to 2016). Kemi Badenoch was the eventual winner of the leadership contest. In Kemi Badenoch's opposition frontbench he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology in November 2024. On 29 November 2024, he voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

.https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/1877#noes

Electoral history

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortune, Peter 1978 births Living people People from Lambeth Conservative Members of the London Assembly Councillors in the London Borough of Bromley Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2024–present London AMs 2021–2024 Conservative Party (UK) councillors