Marco Longhi

Marco Longhi
Official portrait, 2020
Member of Parliament
for Dudley North
In office
12 December 2019 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byIan Austin
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1967-04-22) 22 April 1967 (age 57)
Walsall, Staffordshire, England
Political partyConservative
Websitemarcolonghi.org.uk

Marco Andrea Longhi[1] (born 22 April 1967)[2] is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dudley North from 2019 to 2024.

Early life and career

Marco Longhi was born on 22 April 1967 in Walsall and grew up in Rome, the son of an Italian airline worker, Antonio Longhi, and a British mother, Josephine Clarke. He trained as a pilot and later studied at Manchester University, following this by working for a time in civil engineering.[3] He then worked in the oil and gas industry, which included five years in South America.[4]

Parliamentary career

In 1999, Longhi was elected as a Conservative councillor in Walsall (where his grandfather Wilfred Clarke had been Mayor in 1978), and became Mayor in 2017 and again in 2018.[3]

At the 2005 general election Longhi unsuccessfully ran for election in Dudley South, finishing second with 34.5% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour Party MP Ian Pearson.[5]

Longhi was elected as MP for Dudley North at the 2019 general election, winning with 63.1% of the vote and a majority of 11,533 votes.[6][7]

On 22 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the first ever MP to speak in the Commons chamber via remote video link,[8] asking a question of the Wales Secretary, Simon Hart.[9]

Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Longhi was among the signatories of a letter to The Daily 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 agenda'".[10]

On 23 August 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Longhi as the UK's trade envoy to Brazil.[11]

In May 2022, Longhi called for the "Stop Brexit Man" Steve Bray to be "locked up in the Tower with a loudspeaker playing 'Land of Hope and Glory' on repeat at maximum volume" because of the disruption he causes. He added that Bray was "griping for any little bit of press coverage" and claimed that staff in his Westminster office could not hear "distressed constituents on the phone" because of the loud music that Bray played.[12]

In June 2022, Longhi, in a private message directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, about the government's Rwanda asylum plan, said, "Archbishop, as you appear to feel so strongly about this, will you give up two of your palaces for illegal migrants and pay for their accommodation?"[13]

Longhi endorsed Kemi Badenoch during the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[14] After Badenoch was eliminated, he backed Liz Truss.[15]

In October 2022, following the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Longhi announced that he would be supporting previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the subsequent leadership election.[16]

Longhi was made honorary president of right-wing pressure group Turning Point UK in November 2022.[17] The group reportedly has links to the far-right, including conspiracy theorists such as InfoWars.[18]

In February 2024, Longhi, who is a landlord owning ten properties, opposed the government's Renter's Reform bill, which would increase the rights of tenants in rental properties and included a manifesto pledge to ban no-fault evictions.[19]

At the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Longhi was accused of "dog-whistle" tactics against his Labour opponent Sonia Kumar. His campaign sent leaflets to British Pakistani and Kashmiri Muslims drawing attention to Kumar's Hindu surname (writing it in capital letters and underlined), arguing that she would not support Kashmir while in Parliament.[20] Longhi lost his seat to Kumar at the general election.[21]

Business career

Longhi was the director of property management company Justmove (Lettings) Limited, and owns ten houses in Walsall.[1][22]

References

  1. ^ a b "JUSTMOVE (LETTINGS) LIMITED - Officers". Companies House. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  2. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019: the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  3. ^ a b Madeley, Peter (1 November 2019). "Brexiteer Marco Longhi sets sights on Parliament in Dudley North campaign". Express & Star. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  4. ^ "About Marco". Marco Longhi. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  5. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Commons Briefing Paper 7979. General Election 2017: results and analysis" (PDF) (Second ed.). House of Commons Library. 29 January 2019 [7 April 2018]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Dudley North parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  8. ^ Poole, Danielle. "Marco Longhi MP makes history by asking first question in virtual Parliament". Worcester News. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  9. ^ "Welsh minister attacks Raab over target comments". BBC News. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  10. ^ "Britain's heroes". Letter to the Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. ^ "PM announces new Trade Envoys to boost British business around the world". gov.uk (Press release). 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  12. ^ Lynch, David (11 May 2022). "MP calling for protester to be locked in the Tower is 'griping for coverage'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  13. ^ Maddox, David (15 June 2022). "'Give up your palaces for migrants!' Tory MPs demand of Archbishop to end trafficking". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  14. ^ Madeley, Peter (12 July 2022). "Tory leadership race: Early favourite among region's MPs as nominations deadline looms". Express & Star. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  15. ^ "Next Tory Leader. Which MP is backing whom – the updated list. Truss on 149, Sunak on 132. The Foreign Secretary's lead amongst MPs grows". ConservativeHome. 25 August 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  16. ^ "Who is backing Boris Johnson in the Conservative leadership race?". ITV News. 21 October 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  17. ^ @marcolonghi4dn (6 November 2022). "Delighted to become President of Turning Point U.K." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ^ Walker, Peter (4 February 2019). "Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  19. ^ Booth, Robert (20 February 2024). "Almost a third of Tory MPs trying to weaken tenant protection bill are landlords". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  20. ^ Adu, Aletha (18 June 2024). "Tory candidate accused of dog-whistle tactics against rival with Indian name". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  21. ^ Jenkins, Paul (5 July 2024). "Dudley general election result: Labour's Sonia Kumar beats Marco Longhi and pledges unity". Express and Star. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  22. ^ "Marco Longhi MP, Dudley North". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Dudley North
2019–2024 		Constituency abolished