Theodora Clarke is the Conservative MP for Stafford, having first been elected to Parliament in 2019 with a majority of 14,377 over the Labour Party.
Stafford is a normally safe Conservative seat, albeit David Cameron lost here as the Conservative candidate in the 1997 General Election. A significant town in its own right, many of the local population commute into nearby Birmingham and Stoke to work.
Born in 1985, Clarke studied History of Art at Newcastle University and then took an MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art specialising in Russian Art. She worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the British auction house Christie’s.
She then founded and edited Russian Art and Culture, an online arts magazine in 2011. Clarke sold the business in 2016.
Clarke was previously the UK trade envoy to Kenya, but resigned in July 2022 in protest as Boris Johnson continuing to remain as prime minister.
She later founded the campaign group, Coalition for Global Prosperity, and the Association of Women in the Arts, before being elected to Parliament.
She is on the ‘One Nation’ moderate wing of the Conservative Party. Her grandfather was once a Conservative MP.
Clarke is interested in International Development and is the Vice Chair of the Conservative Friends of International Development. She is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Trade Out of Poverty, and the United Nation’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Eritrea, Syria, the BBC, International Conservation, Museums, Media Freedom, the British Museum, and Theatre.
Her brother, Lawrence Clarke, was an athlete, who came an impressive fourth in the 110 metres hurdles at the 2012 London Olympics.
Theodora Clarke is the niece by marriage of Jacob Rees-Mogg and is reported to have been a good friend of the prime minister’s wife Carrie for over 10 years. In 2022 she announced that she was expecting her first child.
Email – theo.clarke.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.theo-clarke.org.uk
Twitter – @theodoraclarke
