Justin Paul Tomlinson is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Swindon.
Education
Tomlinson was educated at the Harry Cheshire High School (since renamed Baxter College), a state comprehensive school in Kidderminster, Worcestershire in the West Midlands England, followed by in the city of Oxford where he became Chairman of its Conservative Student Branch from 1995-1999. He was National Chairman of Conservative Future between 2002 and 2003, the youth-wing of the Conservative Party.
Tomlinson served as manager of a nightclub called Eros, in Swindon, Wiltshire. He also operated a small marketing business.
Career
He was originally a Conservative Councillor on Swindon Borough Council, being elected in 2000. He was appointed the position of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People following the 2015 general election victory of the Conservative Party. Tomlinson stood in the 2005 general election, but lost to Labour Member of Parliament Michael Wills by 2,571 votes.
In total, Tomlinson received 22,408 votes (446% of the vote), with a swing of 10.1% from Labour to the conservatives.
Along with fellow Member of Parliament Chris Kelly, Tomlinson placed a bet while at university that he would be Prime Minister before the year 2038. Tomlinson sat on the Public Accounts Committee between 2012 and 2014.
He reported fellow Member of Parliament Sadiq Khan to the police in 2014 after Khan was photographed apparently driving whilst using a mobile phone. Tomlinson said "those who make the laws should certainly not be above them".
Tomlinson was given the role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People in May 2015.
Tomlinson faced calls for his resignation in October 2015 after it was revealed than he had leaked information from the Public Accounts committee regarding regulation of short term high cost cr "payday lenders" to Wonga.com back in 2013. Tomlinson accepted he had broken the rules and apologised, claiming that his "strongly-held belief that action needed to be taken on payday lenders" had caused his "judgement to be clouded". Tomlinson arranged £30,000 of sponsorship for Swindon Supermarine F.C., a local football team by the same payday lender wonga.com.
The football club"s chairman, Jez Webb has made donations of £30,218 to both Tomlinson"s and local Conservative party funds since 2014.
Webb stated that he donated in a personal capacity and that the very similar amounts "were coincindental." Tomlinson was subsequently accused of trying to remove references to previous links to Wonga from his website, including the arrangement of a sponsorship deal with Swindon Supermarine F.C. in 2011.
Views
Quotations:
"those who make the laws should certainly not be above them".
Membership
55th United Kingdom Parliament. 56th United Kingdom Parliament]
He is the current Member of Parliament for Swindon North.