Andrew Bridgen MP - Who is he?

Andrew Bridgen was elected as the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire in 2010, being re-elected in 2019 with a majority of 20,400.

Having been expelled by the Conservative Party in the spring of 2023 following controversial comments he made around the covid vaccination, Mr Bridgen subsequently defected to the ‘Reclaim Party’ becoming their first MP.

However, in a statement released in December 2023, Bridgen said he had now decided to leave the Reclaim Party over a “difference in the direction of the party”.

He added that he still supported Reclaim’s “policies and values”.

“I need to make a very important decision with a general election pending in the first half of next year,” he said.

Laurence Fox, the actor who set up Reclaim in 2020, said the party wished him “every success in his bid for re-election in North West Leicestershire”.

“As a reflection of that support, we have made a considerable donation to Andrew’s campaign fund,” he added.

Why Andrew Bridgen’s defection is different

The North West Leicester constituency was a long standing marginal seat that was held by Labour during their period in government between 1997 and 2010. It contains the towns of Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. A varied constituency it includes a mix of former mining towns and more affluent rural villages. Three fifths of voters backed Leave in the 2016 EU referendum, and the seat has become safer for the Conservatives in recent elections.

Born in 1964 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, Bridgen grew up in Swadlincote before studying genetics and behaviour at Nottingham University, graduating with a degree in Biological Sciences.

After graduation, Andrew trained as an officer in the Royal Marines. He returned home to work in the family market gardening business, AB Produce based in this constituencyatf Measham.

Bridgen and his brother diversified the business into producing pre-prepared potatoes and vegetables and grew it to over 200 staff. Bridgen remains a shareholder in the business.

Bridgen is a former ‘Young Executive of the Year UK’ and ‘Young Director of the Year (Midlands) Medium sized business’. He was Chairman of the Institute of Directors in the East Midlands.

Bridgen was a strong supporter of Brexit and a member of the European Research Group of Conservative MPs. He was critical of both David Cameron and Theresa May during their times in Downing Street, and had some firey disagreements with the former Commons Speaker, John Bercow.

In early 2022, he called for Boris Johnson to resign over the ‘partygate’ affair.

He has campaigned to decriminalise non-payment of the BBC TV Licence and to scrap Air Passenger Duty for children.

He has previously been one of the few MPs who has suggested that MPs pay is too low.

Andrew Bridgen is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Serbia; and Uzbekistan.