Heather Wheeler was elected as Conservative MP for South Derbyshire in 2010, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 19,335.
The constituency of South Derbyshire covers the very bottom of Derbyshire, directly below the city of Derby and above the borders of Leicestershire and Staffordshire. This seat contains the former mining town of Swadlincote and the more affluent market town of Repton. It also contains the market town of Melbourne, once home to the famous travel agent, Thomas Cook. Three quarters of the housing stock here is owner occupied.
South Derbyshire was gained by Labour between 1997 and 2010, but in recent years this area has swung heavily to the Conservatives. The Party increased their majority here to some eleven thousand in both 2015 and 2017, and then close to twenty thousand in 2019. Some three fifths of the electorate backed Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum. This seat was once represented in Parliament by Edwina Currie, the former junior health minister also now know for her affair with former Prime Minister, John Major.
Heather Wheeler served as parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office between February and September 2022.
She served in the whips office between 2021 and 2022, and as Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office between 2019 and 2020, and as Under Secretary of Housing between 2018 and 2019.
Born in 1959, Wheeler is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute. She worked in insurance in the City of London for ten years.
Wheeler was elected onto South Derbyshire District Council between 1995 and 2010, and was Leader of the Council between 2007 and 2010. She had previously been elected to Wandsworth Council in London at the age of just 22.
Wheeler backed Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum. She backed Andrea Leadsom, and then Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. She has been supportive of Boris Johnson during the partygate affair saying she abhorred the “whipped up” campaign against him.
Heather Wheeler is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Dairy Industry. She is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Japan; Qatar; and Taiwan.
Wheeler is married with an adult daughter. She lists her interests as watching sport, and listening to the ‘Archers’ on the radio.
In 2021 Wheeler stood for election to the position of Chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers. However she was defeated by the incumbent, Sir Graham Brady.
Email: heather.wheeler.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: www.heatherwheeler.org.uk
Twitter: @HeatherWheeler
