British Conservative politician
James Sunderland (born 6 June 1970)[1] is a British Conservative politician and former military officer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bracknell between 2019 and 2024.
Early life and career
James Sunderland was born on 6 June 1970 in Chertsey. He was privately educated at Royal Grammar School Guildford, before earning a bachelor’s degree at the University of Birmingham. He then earned a master’s degree from King’s College London before attending the Defence Academy.[2]
He was commissioned into the British Army from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1993 and served for 26 years before retiring in November 2019 with the rank of Colonel.[3]
Parliamentary career
At the 2019 general election, Sunderland was elected to Parliament as MP for Bracknell with 58.7% of the vote and a majority of 19,829.[4][5]
Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Sunderland was among the signatories of a letter to The Telegraph in November 2020 from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke[broken anchor] agenda'".[6]
In March 2021 Sunderland was elected as the chairman of the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee.[7]
He responded to claims that the Boundary Commission charged with redistricting the Bracknell Constituency purposefully redrew the maps to aid Conservatives by saying "I am comfortable that fairness has been employed and that the fundamental principles that underpin it have been robustly honoured".[8]
In the Government reshuffle of September 2021, Sunderland received his first official appointment, as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the ministerial team at the Ministry of Defence. On 13 June 2022, he was moved to the role of PPS to George Eustice, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.[9] He resigned from this position on 6 July 2022, in protest at Boris Johnson's conduct in the Chris Pincher scandal.[10]
In February 2023, Sunderland was re-selected as the Conservative candidate for Bracknell[11] but narrowly lost his seat to Labour's Peter Swallow at the 2024 general election.
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