Ian was elected as the Member of Parliament for Blyth Valley in December 2019 and is the first Conservative politician to hold the role since the seat was created in 1950.
He has lived in Blyth all of his life and is married with two grown-up children. Ian worked on Blyth market as a teenager and left school at sixteen to become a grave digger employed by the council. Before becoming MP, Ian had worked for over twenty years in mental health care.
Ian’s main motivation as MP is to bring more jobs and increased prosperity to Blyth Valley by promoting the area as a place for businesses to invest. He is also fully committed to improving transport links through the re-instatement of passenger rail services to the constituency.
