Steve Baker was first elected as the Conservative MP for Wycombe in 2010, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 4,214.
The constituency of Wycombe is found in the south western corner of Buckinghamshire along the M40 motorway and is concentrated on the town of High Wycombe itself alongside some affluent rural villages. Wycombe contains a large Asian population and this seat is more ethnically diverse than the other Buckinghamshire seats. Although this has been a Conservative seat since 1950, it has become increasingly more marginal in recent years, and has now become a key target for the Labour Party.
Steve Baker MP was appointed Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office in September 2022. Having initially backed Suella Braverman, he subsequently supported Liz Truss in the 2022 Conservative party leadership election.
In an earlier ministerial career, Steve Baker served briefly as Under Secretary of State for Existing the European Union between 2017 and 2018. He resigned and later became the Chairman of the European Research Group of Conservative MPs.
Baker is well known for his ability at running campaigns from the backbenches. He was a key player in the Brexit battles trying to frustrate Theresa May’s Brexit proposals, and in 2020/21 was also critical of the government’s coronavirus lockdown.
On the right of the Conservative Party he strongly supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.
Steve Baker’s Brexit regret?
The leading “Leave” campaigner was a prominent voice the 2016 referendum, which saw the voting public back ending EU membership by 52 per to 48 per cent, as well as during the turmoil that followed.
He has in the past described himself as the “hard man of Brexit” and is considered a “Brexit spartan”, i.e. an individual who voted against Theresa May’s deal with the EU on all three occasions,
But, reflecting on his role as an arch-rebel in the 2016-2019 period, Baker has told BBC’s Newsnight programme that it “cost me my mental health”.
He said: “November ’21, I had a major mental health crisis. Anxiety and depression. Couldn’t go on. People couldn’t tell. Holding those tigers by the tail took its toll. We’re only human”.
In October 2023, Baker suggested the vote to leave the EU should have required a supermajority of 60 per cent.
Baker told a meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) that the Leave vote should “probably should have been a supermajority” of at least 60 per cent.
He added that not having the threshold had caused serious political “trouble”.
He said: “One regret is it probably should have been a supermajority.
“That’s a huge thing for me to say – because if it had been a supermajority we’d have lost and we’d still be in. But the reason I say that is if we’d had to have 60 per cent, everybody would have abided by the result.”
“If it had been a 60-40 result, it’s inconceivable to me that we would have had all of the political difficulty which followed from members of parliament in particular refusing to accept the result.”
Baker then cautioned against a “50 per cent plus one” result in any potential Irish unification vote. “Would anyone here seriously want a 50 per cent plus one united Ireland result in Northern Ireland?”.
“Just reflect on the trouble we had from running a 50 per cent plus one referendum in the United Kingdom and ask yourself whether you really want that trouble in Northern Ireland – and I don’t”.
Baker, a former chair of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservatives, backed Rishi Sunak’s renegotiation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the so-called “Windsor Framework”, which was passed in March of this year.
In doing so, Baker angered his former colleagues in the ERG and was kicked out of one of the group’s WhatsApp chats.
It came after Baker apologised for his once “ferocious” stance on negotiations with the EU which he said did not always encourage Ireland to trust the UK government.
Other political views
An evangelical Christian, Baker voted against Same Sex Marriage. On the free market wing of the Conservative Party, he was involved in the creation of the Cobden Centre think tank.
He backed Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative leadership election, and submitted a Letter of No Confidence in Theresa May in 2018. In the spring of 2022 he called for Boris Johnson to resign over ‘partygate’ stating in the House of Commons that the ‘gig is over’.
Born in 1971, Baker served in the Royal Air Force as an engineer. After reading Aerospace Systems Engineering at Southampton University, he served three tours of duty, working with Tornado and Jaguar fast jets.
He later undertook a MSc in computer engineering at Oxford and later joined a software firm.
He variously lists his hobbies as motorcycling, scuba diving, piloting a light aircraft and golf. He is a member of the Air League Council.
Steve Baker is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Mutuals, and on British Muslims.
Email – steve.baker.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: www.stevebaker.info
Twitter: @SteveBakerHW
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SteveBakerWycombe?fref=ts
