Theresa lives in Arkley in Barnet. She grew up in St John’s Wood before studying at the University of Bristol, where she achieved a first in law and was ranked second in her year. She went on to Oxford, where she attained a BCL graduate degree. A former barrister, she was a lecturer at King’s College London when the London Conservatives chose her to top the list of their candidates for the European Election in 1999.
Representing the capital for six years as an MEP, Theresa was Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to 2002. Throughout her time in the European Parliament Theresa was an opponent of Britain’s entry into the Euro and other attempts to expand the powers of the EU. She was also responsible for steering the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID) through the European Parliament and was a leading figure in efforts to increase cross border trade in financial services.
Between 2005 and 2024, Theresa served in the House of Commons as MP for Chipping Barnet. In December 2005, after just seven months in parliament, David Cameron appointed Theresa to his Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. As well as working with George Osborne on Conservative economic policy, Theresa led the Opposition scrutiny of the Finance Bills in 2006 and 2007 – this process is a notoriously complex and difficult task but Theresa gained vital concessions from Gordon Brown who was then the Chancellor. At David Cameron’s first reshuffle in July 2007, she gained further promotion and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.
When the Coalition took office on May 2010, Theresa was appointed to the Privy Council and became Minister of State for Transport. Her role included overseeing the transport needed to support the hugely successful London 2012 Olympics and helping to secure the funding for major investment in our railways, including upgrades to the London Underground network.
Theresa was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in September 2012, a role she held until July 2016. She was only the 35th woman ever appointed to the UK Cabinet. In her role as Northern Ireland Secretary, she was responsible for delivering the successful G8 summit which took place in County Fermanagh in June 2013. That meeting delivered an international agreement aimed at ensuring that big multinational businesses pay their fair share of tax.
In 2014 Theresa chaired 11 weeks of cross party talks in Belfast resulting in the Stormont House Agreement which set out a way forward on resolving a number of crucial issues threatening the stability of the political settlement in Northern Ireland. After problems with implementation, Theresa stepped in again, chairing a further 10 weeks of talks in 2015 which delivered the Fresh Start Agreement. Without a successful conclusion to these talks, it is highly likely that Northern Ireland's devolved institutions would have collapsed.
Theresa was part of the campaign to leave the EU and in 2019, she was one of just 27 Eurosceptic Conservative MPs to vote against Theresa May's EU Withdrawal Agreement three times because it would have kept the UK indefinitely subject to EU rules without any say over them.
From 2019 to 2020, Theresa served in Boris Johnson's first Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, presenting ground-breaking legislation to Parliament. That included an Environment Bill to set demanding new targets on cleaning up air quality and protecting nature and biodiversity, as well as legislation on farming and fishing enable the UK to leave the EU's CAP and CFP and replace those programmes with a better greener alternative. She also announced plans to end the export of live animals for slaughter.
Theresa was re-elected four times as Barnet's MP, in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019. Throughout her 19 years representing Chipping Barnet, she kept up busy schedule of campaigning and engagements in her constituency. Some of her key local campaigns included:
- Securing upgraded facilities for Barnet Market and supporting our local high streets.
- Delivering local neighbourhood police teams for every ward in Chipping Barnet (2005) and then getting them expanded.
- Re-opening the health centres in Brunswick Park and East Barnet (2013 and 2015 respectively).
- Expanding maternity and A&E services at Barnet Hospital (2015), and securing a major rebuild of Chase Farm Hospital (2019).
- Saved Barnet Council breastfeeding support services from closure (2018).
- Saving East Barnet Post Office from the closure.
- Pressing BT to deliver high speed broadband to more homes in the constituency, and pushing them to fill gaps in provision.
- Campaigned against antisemitism and in support of Israel and its right to defend itself.
- Worked with the local Tamil community to highlight human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
- Supported efforts to find a just, lasting and balanced settlement to reunite Cyprus.
- Backed the creation of the first ever Greek Orthodox secondary school, and the first cross-community Jewish secondary school (opened in 2013 and 2011 respectively). Supported local secondary schools to become academies, such as the Totteridge Academy.
- Worked with local residents to prevent the building of an Asda superstore in New Barnet to save the site for new family homes (2015).
- Defeating plans to build a waste disposal centre at Pinkham Way.
- Stopped a cemetery being built on the green belt at Arkley (2016) and preventing a caravan park from being constructed over a field in Mays Lane (2024).
- Strongly opposed overdevelopment, particularly where it impacts on the green belt, back gardens or other green spaces, such as Whalebones, Cat Hill in Cockfosters, and Hemington Avenue in Friern Barnet. She also fought for many years against new high rise blocks of flats at North London Business Park and the redevelopment of Barnet House.
- Persuaded the then Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, to veto plans by the Mayor of London to build over Cockfosters station car park. She also led a successful campaign to stop the Mayor from building over High Barnet station car park.
- Whilst Transport Minister, secured funding for the tube upgrade, improving reliability and frequency on the Northern Line (2010). Stopped plans to split the Northern Line which would deny Barnet residents direct access to the Charing Cross branch.
- Secured a further expansion of Barnet Hospital A&E (due to open by the end of 2024); and a significant increase in the number of GP appointments in our area.
- Campaigned strongly against the Mayor of London’s plans to sell off Barnet police station.
- Persuaded the previous Conservative Government to deliver 20,000 additional police, meaning the Met has more officers than ever before (2024).
- Successfully lobbied for additional funding to protect the Jewish community (2023).
- Part of the successful cross-party campaign to get 84B bus route from Potters Bar to Barnet restored (2023). Persuaded TfL to step in and save the 107 bus when Herts CC withdrew funding (2016).
- Pushed GTR to restore peak time rail services at Oakleigh Park and New Southgate stations (2019).
- Helped obtain a £6.6 billion rescue package for Transport for London after the Covid emergency (2022).
- Secured £368,000 potholes funding for Barnet out of the money released from cancelling the northern leg of HS2 (2024). London had been denied a share of previous pothole money.
- Campaigned successfully for more money for Barnet schools. Led a successful five year cross-party campaign to save maintained nursery schools threatened with closure. Lobbied for new buildings and facilities for local schools such as Alma Primary, East Barnet and Cromer Road.
- Lobbied the Chancellor successfully for an expansion of free childcare (2023).
- Twice persuaded the Chancellor to introduce business rate reductions for high street businesses.
- Defeated plans by Barnet’s Labour council to impose new bus lanes in Cat Hill in East Barnet and on the A1000 in Whetstone High Road (2024).
- Campaigned vigorously against other anti-driver measures such as Ulez expansion in the suburbs.