37 Facts About Caroline Ansell

1.

Caroline Julie Porte Ansell was born on 12 January 1971 and is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

2.

Caroline Ansell has been the Member of Parliament for Eastbourne since the 2019 general election.

3.

Caroline Ansell was first elected as Eastbourne's MP at the 2015 general election, but was defeated at the 2017 election.

4.

Caroline Ansell was born in 1971 in Eastbourne and is the youngest of four daughters of Scottish parents.

5.

Caroline Ansell attended university at Royal Holloway, University of London, to study a Bachelor of Arts in French.

6.

Caroline Ansell studied business at the private university Ecole superieure de commerce and, aged 30, gained a master's degree in education from the University of Brighton in 2001.

7.

Caroline Ansell worked for a number of years as a French teacher, exclusively in private schools.

8.

Caroline Ansell worked in a support role at Cavendish School in Old Town, Eastbourne in the same year as one of her children was diagnosed with a brain tumour, which led her to take a sabbatical from teaching.

9.

Caroline Ansell has given various reasons for her interest and motivation in politics; she noted in her maiden speech that:.

10.

Caroline Ansell was first elected as a Conservative Party councillor on 31 May 2012, at the age of 41.

11.

Caroline Ansell served as a councillor for three years, representing the Meads ward of Eastbourne Borough Council.

12.

Caroline Ansell was part of the team to bring back Meads Magic, a community Christmas event which brings thousands of people to the area.

13.

Caroline Ansell was selected by her local party membership to stand as the Conservative Party candidate in the 2015 general election.

14.

Caroline Ansell won the competitive selection for one of her party's top target seats against candidates with health, law and military backgrounds, including two of her future parliamentary colleagues Ben Howlett and Alberto Costa.

15.

Caroline Ansell then went on to serve the constituency of Eastbourne for two years.

16.

Caroline Ansell exerted influence with ministers to enable substantial investment into the town.

17.

Caroline Ansell helped an American Eastbourne resident and mother Katy Garlington, who was allowed to stay in the UK after Caroline Ansell intervened with the Home Office and persuaded the then immigration minister James Brokenshire to stop her deportation.

18.

Caroline Ansell worked with local Eastbourne actress Lauren Backler and her campaign to reduce the bowel cancer screening age from 60 to 50 in England to bring it in line with Scotland.

19.

Backler lost her mother to the disease and Caroline Ansell organised a parliamentary debate on the issue and lobbied ministers to look into the lowering the age to 50.

20.

Caroline Ansell supported Theresa May in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election.

21.

Caroline Ansell's authority is unmatched and as such she will command the respect of the House of Commons and the confidence of the public.

22.

From 2015 to 2017, Caroline Ansell employed her husband as a full-time personal assistant with public funds.

23.

In 2016, officials at the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said that they were "taken aback" by the fact that there were still 18 MPs, including Caroline Ansell, who employed family members in their offices.

24.

Caroline Ansell was defeated in the 2017 general election by 1,609 votes; the seat was regained by Stephen Lloyd for the Liberal Democrats.

25.

Caroline Ansell was the first female MP to represent the constituency and credits her mother for giving her ambition.

26.

In October 2020, Caroline Ansell voted against the government on an opposition day motion on funding free school meals over school holidays.

27.

Caroline Ansell then resigned her job as a parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, because she had voted against the government, of which she was a member at the time.

28.

Caroline Ansell voted at the direction of the Conservative government whip in nearly every vote as an MP during her time in parliament.

29.

Caroline Ansell was elected as Eastbourne's new MP in the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

30.

Caroline Ansell received 26,951 votes, a 4,331 vote majority over the previous MP Stephen Lloyd, who received 22,620.

31.

Caroline Ansell served as member of the cross-party Ecclesiastical Committee and the Environmental Audit Select Committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

32.

Caroline Ansell chaired the Education group within the Conservative Party's own 1922 Committee.

33.

Caroline Ansell set up the annual Ian Gow Cup public speaking competition for Eastbourne secondary schools in 2015 in memory of former Eastbourne MP Ian Gow who was murdered by the IRA in 1990.

34.

Caroline Ansell accepted an unpaid intern from the charity Christian Action Research and Education in 2016.

35.

Caroline Ansell said that she "appreciate[d]" that during the debate, Conservative MPs "spoke on the need for protections for the Church and for people of faith in their working lives".

36.

Caroline Ansell is a PE teacher at the colla prep school.

37.

Caroline Ansell is a member of the evangelical Christian King's Church and attends the Catholic Our Lady of Ransom Church in Eastbourne.