Sir Gary Streeter was first elected to Parliament in 1992as the Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton. He has served as the MP for South West Devon since 1997, being reelected with a majority of 21,430 in 2019.
The constituency of south west Devon spreads out from the eastern commuter outskirts of Plymouth, around Plympton and Plymstock, to include the town of Ivybridge. A picturesque part of England, this seat includes an area on the edge of Dartmoor as well as part of Devon’s southern coastline. This is an economically active area. It is a safe Conservative seat which returned the Conservatives with comfort, even in the Labour landslide year of 1997.
Sir Gary plans to step down from Westminster at the next general election.
Streeter previously served in the government of John Major. He was a government whip from 1995 to 1996, and a Junior Minister in the Lord Chancellor’s Department between 1996 and 1997. He was knighted in 2019.
Born in 1955, Streeter was raised on a dairy farm in East Devon. He was educated at Tiverton Grammar School in Devon and the University of London, King’s College where he obtained a First Class Honours degree in Law in 1977. He also won the Gelf Award for top law student for that year.
Mr Streeter was articled to a large City of London firm of solicitors until 1980. He later joined the legal firm Foot & Bowden in Plymouth and specialised in Company and Employment law. He became a Partner in the firm in 1984.
Streeter was elected as a Councillor on the Plymouth City Council between 1986 and 1992. He was the Council’s Housing Chairman from 1989 to 1991.
Streeter supported Remain in the 2016 EU referendum and is generally regarded as being on the left of the Conservative Party. He is an evangelical Christian.
Sir Gary Streeter is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Christians in Parliament; the South West; and National Parks. He is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Faith in Society; and Religion in the Media;
Mr Streeter is married with two adult children. He employs his wife a junior parliamentary researcher. He has a self proclaimed love of horses.
In 2022 he declared that he had written a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson to the 1922 committee saying he couldn’t “reconcile” the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street.
Email: deans@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.garystreeter.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gary4swdevon
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/garystreeter4SWDevon?fref=ts