Tom Pursglove was first elected as the Conservative MP for Corby in 2015, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 10,267.
The constituency of Corby contains the former iron and steel dominated town of Corby, alongside a rural area in the north eastern corner of Northamptonshire. The town of Corby has a notable Scottish community and is sometimes known as ‘Little Scotland’ reflecting the large number of Scottish workers who moved south to work in the steelworks.
Corby is one of the longest standing marginal seats in England, which regularly changes hands alongside the government of the day. Three fifths of the local electorate voted for Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum.
Pursglove was appointed Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions in October 2022 as the minister for disabled people.
In December 2023, Pursglove was appointed legal migration minister in the wake of Robert Jenrick’s resignation. Jenrick had his old post, that of immigration minister, split in two in the mini-reshuffle triggered by his resignation.
Michael Tomlinson became illegal migration minister.
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Replacing Pursglove at DWP was Mims Davies, however she remains a parliamentary undersecretary of state rather than becoming a minister of state — an apparent downgrade of the disabilities minister post.
Reacting to the appointment of Mims Davies as a parliamentary undersecretary of state, Vicky Foxcroft, the Labour MP and shadow minister for disabled people, said it was “outrageous it took the government so long to finally agree to appoint a minister for disabled people”.
She said: “When they finally do, they have demoted the role to parliamentary undersecretary of state and the role was previously minister of state. Disabled people deserve better than this.”
Decision to ‘downgrade’ disabilities minister role met with anger from campaigners
Pursglove served as Minister of State at the Home Office between July and October 2022. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice between 2021 and 2022. He was an Assistant Government Whip by Boris Johnson between 2019 and 2021.
Born in 1988, Pursglove comes from a policing family and grew up in Wellingborough. He was educated at Queen Mary College, University of London. Prior to being elected as an MP, he worked as Parliamentary Assistant to Chris Heaton-Harris MP. He was also the Director of Together Against Wind, the national anti-wind farm campaign.
When he was first elected to Parliament in 2015, Pursglove was the youngest Conservative MP at the age of 27. He served on Wellingborough Council between 2007 and 2015.
Pursglove supported Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum. He supported Dominic Raab, and then Boris Johnson in the 2018 Conservative leadership election.
Pursglove is an ECB qualified cricket umpire.
A former Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on running, he has twice completed the London marathon.
Email: pursglovet@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.votepursglove.co.uk/
Twitter: @votepursglove
