After joining the Conservative Party in 2006, Perry worked for Shadow ChancellorGeorge Osborne.[10] She was selected in November 2009 as a Conservative candidate after Michael Ancram announced his intention to stand down from Devizes, a safe seat for her party.[11] In her maiden speech she was critical of the previous Labour government's management of the rural economy, adding: "we do not get as many jobcentres per head of the population in rural Britain". She also paid tribute to the Armed Forces, as Devizes is home to 11,000 soldiers.[12]
Perry campaigned for improvements in online safety, and in 2011 led an Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection, with a particular focus on online pornography.[16] She was subsequently appointed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, as an adviser on preventing the sexualisation and commercialisation of children.[17]
Perry argued for blocks on pornography for all internet users unless they opt out of it, citing the need to protect children.[18][19] In July 2013, hackers placed pornographic images on Perry's own website. Perry accused political blogger Paul Staines – known for his Guido Fawkes blog – of sponsoring the attack,[20][21] while Staines threatened to sue her for libel if the claim was not removed.[22] After Internet filters started to be rolled out, news agencies reported that a wide range of non-pornographic websites were now being censored by UK ISPs as a result of false-positive results for blocked phrases, including Perry's own website, as a result of her frequent use of words such as "porn" and "sex" in web posts about her pro-censorship campaign.[23][24]
Perry campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU during the 2016 membership referendum, and argued after the vote that some members of her party were "like jihadis" in their support for a "hard Brexit" and said the tone of the debate on leaving the European Union "borders on the hysterical".[28] She was one of only seven Conservative MPs to vote for an amendment arguing that Parliament should have the final say on any deal to leave the EU.[29] She subsequently voted with her party in approving the decision to invoke Article 50.
In September 2019, Perry announced she would not stand at the next general election, which took place in December of that year.[33]
In November 2018 the PCS, FDA and Prospect unions raised concerns with senior officials at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy that Perry had been accused of swearing and shouting at staff. The shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett said that the unions had raised "serious allegations" and urged officials to "look into them carefully".[34]
The Daily Telegraph reported in May 2019 that she was claiming £9,843 per year tax-free in Parliamentary expenses for her three children – aged 17, 19 and 22, the two eldest of whom were at university – on top of her salary as MP and Minister of State for Energy, totalling £111,148, and her standard tax-free "second home allowance" of £22,760. She did not deny the report, but said that she had not broken any Parliamentary rules.[35]
Post-Parliament career
Climate Change Conference
In September 2019, Perry was nominated as President of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Glasgow in November 2020.[36] In the same month, she announced that she would not stand for re-election to Parliament, and she then gave up her seat in the general election of December 2019. She was succeeded as Conservative MP for Devizes by Danny Kruger.
The UK government abruptly removed Perry from the Presidential post on 31 January 2020, stating that the post would become "a ministerial role".[37][38][39] She later criticised actions of the prime minister's adviser Dominic Cummings, saying he "put out a deeply defamatory briefing to the media the day he fired me, claiming that the COP didn't need a President".[40]
WBCSD
In September 2020, Perry was appointed managing director for climate and energy at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a membership organisation for companies, which works on a variety of issues related to sustainable development.[41]
Political allegiance
In January 2023, Perry announced that she had resigned from the Conservative Party, despite her admiration for the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and his Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.[42] Perry claimed that the Conservative Party had become dominated by "ideology and self-obsession" and explained that Britain's strained relations with the European Union were also behind her decision to quit. Perry praised Keir Starmer and backed him to provide "sober, fact-driven, competent political leadership".[43]
Personal life
Perry has three children from her former marriage.[4] Three months after she announced her separation, it was reported that Perry had begun a relationship with Professor Bill O'Neill, a researcher and academic on lasers, whom she had met through constituency work; Perry and O'Neill married in 2018.[44] In 2013, Perry lived in Pewsey Vale in Wiltshire.[45]
Notes
^ abPerry initially served as Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry but the office was retitled and given right to attend Cabinet in January 2018.[1]
^Staff writer (2013), "PERRY, Claire Louise", Who's Who 2013. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the UK)
^ abcdPerry, Claire. "About Claire". claireperry.org.uk. Archived from the original on 12 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
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