Mark Jenkinson has been the Conservative MP for Workington since 2019, having gained the seat from Labour with a majority of 4,176.
The constituency of Workington is located on the west Cumbrian coast and includes the coastal towns of Workington and Maryport. It then spreads inwards towards the Lake District and has a large rural component reaching across to the town of Cockermouth, known in recent years for its problem with flooding.
Previously won by the Labour Party at every General Election since the First World War, the concept of ‘Workington man’ came to symbolise the 2019 General Election. With 61% of the local electorate having voted for Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, this seat was now gained by the Conservatives along with a number of its neighbours in West Cumbria.
Jenkinson was appointed an Assistant Government Whip in September 2022 under Liz Truss. He was not reappointed to the government when Rishi Suank became prime minister in October 2022.
Born in 1982 in Workington, Mark Jenkinson is a self described ‘working class’ Tory. He worked as an electrician before becoming an MP.
He is also a trained nuclear technical officer, and a technical author with shares in Jolievue Holdings Ltd.
Jenkinson is a supporter of the plans to construct a new coal mine on the west Cumbrian coast.
He is married with four children.
A supporter of Brexit, he contested this seat for the UK Independence Party in the 2015 General Election. Nigel Farage publicly congratulated Jenkinson on his 2019 victory.
He was elected to the local Allerdale Borough Council for the Conservatives in 2019.
Mark Jenkinson is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Fuel Poverty, Hydrogen, Marine Energy, the Northern Powerhouse, Nuclear Energy, and the Wood Panel Industry.
Jenkinson has been a prominent public backer of Boris Johnson, doing so throughout his partygate difficulties. In the spring of 2022 he described the prime minister as the ‘de facto leader of the free world’.
Email – mark.jenkinson.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.mark-jenkinson.co.uk
