Victoria Borwick

Victoria Borwick
MP
Member of Parliament
for Kensington
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded by Malcolm Rifkind
Majority 7,361 (21.1%)
Deputy Mayor of London
In office
9 May 2012 – 13 May 2015
Mayor Boris Johnson
Preceded by Richard Barnes
Succeeded by Roger Evans
Member of the London Assembly
At-large
In office
1 May 2008 – 16 September 2015
Succeeded by Kemi Badenoch
Personal details
Born (1956-04-26) 26 April 1956
London, United Kingdom
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) James Borwick
Children 4
Religion Christianity
Website Mayoral website
Parliament biography

Victoria Borwick, Lady Borwick (born Victoria Lorne Peta Poore; 26 April 1956[1]) is a British Conservative politician who serves as Member of Parliament for Kensington. Borwick was deputy mayor of London from 2012 to 2015 and was elected to the House of Commons in 2015. She is also a councillor in Kensington and Chelsea and a Member of the London Assembly from 2008 to 2015. She worked in senior management for P&O and DMG World Media before becoming the Conservative Party's fundraising director.[2]

Personal and business life

Born in London in 1956, she was educated at Wispers School.[3] Victoria Poore married Jamie Borwick[4] on 20 March 1981. She is the only child of Wing Cdr Dennistoun Poore (died 1987), a scion of the baronetage family of that name,[1] while her husband succeeded his uncle in 2007 as 5th Baron Borwick (as well as in his family's baronetcy) and took his seat in the House of Lords, in 2013, as an elected hereditary peer. They have three sons and a daughter.[5]

Victoria Borwick worked in the event management industry for most of her working life, including being group director of events of shipping company P&O.[6] She organised the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs as director from 1990 to 2001,[7] and in 2002 was recruited to assist International Fine Art Expositions' New International Fine Art Fair in New York City.[8]

Political life

In September 1999, Borwick was chosen as Conservative mayoral candidate Steve Norris's running mate and potential deputy mayor for the 2000 London Mayoral election.[9] She was also given a place on the Conservative Party list for the London Assembly, although she was unsuccessful in her bid to get elected.

Lady Borwick was elected to Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council in May 2002 for the Abingdon Ward.[10] She became Director of Income Generation and Marketing for the Conservative Party in October 2002, with the aim of increasing revenue from the party's supporter base.[11]

In the run-up to the 2004 London Mayoral election, Borwick declared her intention to seek the Conservative mayoral candidacy.[12] She made the shortlist but was not one of the final two in the selection, which included Steve Norris who received the nomination.[13] She spoke subsequently at the 2003 Conservative Party Conference in support of Norris. In her speech she said of the incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone that "you are the weakest link, goodbye", alluding to her supposed resemblance with the television presenter Anne Robinson.[14]

2008 London mayoral contest

Victoria Borwick announced her candidacy for the nomination for the 2008 Mayoral election in July 2006. During her initial campaign, she declared "London needs a redhead, not Red Ken" in allusion to her hair colour.[15] The Conservative Party, however, would later announce that the candidates "did not satisfy the party's hopes of attracting a national name" and postponed the planned open primaries.[16] In 2007 she published a Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet entitled "The Cost of Ken" which itemised the Greater London Authority budget.[6]

In the middle of the postponed mayoral selection, Borwick unsuccessfully ran for the selection to be the Conservative London Assembly candidate for West Central against Kit Malthouse.[17] The Mayoral selection resumed in summer 2007 and Borwick was one of the final four candidates shortlisted.[18] She finished second in the ballot, receiving 1,869 votes compared to the winner Boris Johnson's 15,661 ballots.[19] She later acted as a consultant in Johnson's successful campaign.[20]

Assembly Member and London Deputy Mayor

Victoria Borwick was elected to the London Assembly as one of three London-wide members for the Conservatives after the 2008 election. She had been placed second on the Conservative list for the election after unsuccessfully seeking to become a prospective parliamentary candidate.[21]

Having been returned as a Member (AM) in the 2012 election, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, appointed her Deputy Mayor of London in succession to Richard Barnes.[22][23]

In an interview with The Evening Standard in 2013, Borwick was described as "the person who would step up should Boris ever fall under a [proverbial] London bus" as Johnson's "First Deputy".[24][25] During the same year, Borwick was also named in The Evening Standard Power 1000 List of the most influential people in London.[26] On 16 September 2015, she resigned from the Assembly, her seat being filled by Conservative Kemi Badenoch.[27]

Member of Parliament

On 13 March 2015, Borwick was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Kensington constituency at the 2015 general election. The seat was held by Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind during the 2010–2015 parliament.

On 7 May 2015, Borwick was elected as member for Kensington with 18,199 votes (a majority of 7,361 over Labour). The Conservative vote increased by 2.2 percentage points compared with the previous election, though there was a 1.7% swing to Labour. She resigned as deputy mayor on 13 May 2015, being replaced by fellow Assembly Member, Roger Evans,[28] and stood down from the Assembly on 16 September 2015.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed in June 2015 that Borwick was "topping up her Parliamentary salary with tens of thousands of pounds in public money from two additional elected roles", in contrast to the practice of other MPs who, despite also acting as London councillors, had given up their allowances to avoid taking multiple salaries on the public purse.[29]

Borwick supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum,[30] although 69% of voters in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (in which the Kensington constituency is located) favoured the UK's continued membership of the European Union.[31]

Arms

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Mosley, Charles (ed.) (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 107th edn. London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 3173 (Poore, Bt). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. ↑ "Debrett's biographies.
  3. ↑ ‘BORWICK, Lady; Victoria Lorne Peta Borwick’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
  4. ↑ "Marriages", The Times, 21 March 1981, p. 16.
  5. ↑ "Borwick, 5 Baron" in "Debrett's People of Today, 2014".
  6. 1 2 "The Cost of the London Mayor", Centre for Policy Studies, January 2007.
  7. ↑ Will Bennett, "Contemporary market", Daily Telegraph, 24 September 2001, p. 18.
  8. ↑ "DMG Brings Antique Fair to New York", Gifts & Decorative Accessories.
  9. ↑ "Norris names his running mate", Evening Standard, 17 September 1999, p. 2.
  10. ↑ Abingdon Ward Local Elections May 2002.
  11. ↑ Mark Kleinman, "Tories hire chief to regain core votes", Marketing, 10 October 2002, p. 1.
  12. ↑ "10 fight Norris for Tory Mayor chance", Evening Standard, 2 December 2002, p6.
  13. ↑ Charles Reiss, "Norris becomes Tories' favourite to be Mayor", Evening Standard, 16 January 2003, p. 2.
  14. ↑ "Conservatives in Blackpool: Yesterday's Highlights", The Independent, 8 October 2003, p. 11.
  15. ↑ Joe Murphy, Pippa Crerar, "The redhead aiming to challenge Red Ken; Zero-tolerance from woman entering Tory mayoral candidacy race", Evening Standard, 18 July 2006, p. 10.
  16. ↑ Brendan Carlin, Jonathan Isaby, "Mayoral fanfare backfires on Tories", Daily Telegraph, 5 August 2006, p. 8.
  17. ↑ "Londoner's Diary", Evening Standard, 27 March 2007, p. 15.
  18. ↑ "Boris joins Tory four for London", Sunday Times, 22 July 2007, p. 2.
  19. ↑ Ross Lydall, "Tory candidate Boris: King Newt's days as Mayor are numbered", Evening Standard, 27 September 2007, p. 1.
  20. ↑ Pippa Crerar, "Team BoJo creates big tent in bid to reach City Hall", Evening Standard, 20 November 2007, p. 1.
  21. ↑ London-wide Assembly members by party, London Elects.
  22. ↑ "Victoria Borwick named new Deputy Mayor of London".
  23. ↑ "Investment providing platform for economic growth".
  24. ↑ "Evening Standard 16 June 2013.
  25. ↑ "From The Hornet's Nest, It would be fantastic to take over from Boris.
  26. ↑ Evening Standard The Power 1000.
  27. ↑ "New Assembly Member appointed". london.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  28. ↑ www.mayorwatch.co.uk
  29. ↑ "Revealed: The 'triple dipper' Conservative MP who is paid nearly £100,000 a year for three elected jobs".
  30. ↑ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  31. ↑ "Referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union: The result".

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Malcolm Rifkind		 Member of Parliament
for Kensington
2015–present 		Incumbent
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