John Penrose

John Penrose was elected as Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare in 2005. He was appointed as Shadow Business Minister in January 2009 and as a member of Ken Clarke’s team is responsible for regulatory reform, consumers and company law. He is also Joint Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Further Education & Lifelong Learning, which aims to promote and develop the interests of further education, adult learning and skills sectors. During his career in parliament, John has also worked on the Work and Pensions Select Committee, scrutinising the Government's performance on pensions, benefits and employment, as well as being Private Parliamentary Secretary to Oliver Letwin MP, working on the Conservative Party Policy Review.

John's background is in publishing. Before being elected to Parliament, John was Chairman of Logotron Ltd, a small independent company creating educational software for schools, and used to be Managing Director of Longman, publishing school textbooks for the UK and parts of Africa. Earlier in his career, John worked in publishing for Thomson, in management consulting for McKinsey, and in banking for JPMorgan

John lives in his constituency, in the village of Winscombe. His father was brought up in nearby Timsbury, and his grandfather taught at Midsomer Norton school. His parents were both teachers, but John's father died in 1992. His mother has since remarried and now lives in Scotland. John married Dido Harding in 1995. Her family have been Somerset farmers for many generations. Dido’s horse, Cool Dawn, won the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup, and John has been kicking himself ever since because he didn’t bet on the race.

John is a member of Amnesty International; his hobbies are fishing, beekeeping, rowing, singing in choirs, worrying while Dido rides in steeplechases, and celebrating when she wins.

John is involved in several local community initiatives. He is President of the Weston YMCA, which acts as an umbrella organisation for a range of local organisations such as the local Credit Union; the Teenage Pregnancy Advisory unit; Junction 21 (Weston’s Crime Concern Trust); Connexions (youth advice and mentoring); the local Deposit Guarantee Board (housing for the homeless); and VIA (drug and alcohol rehabilitation assessment).

He is a Governor of Weston College, President of the Winscombe and District Senior Citizens Forum and Patron of the South West Branch of The Mankind Initiative.

John was in charge of research for the Bow Group, a long-established and highly-respected Conservative think-tank, in 1998. He commissioned and published papers on Reforming the House of Lords, Human Rights, Reforming Europe and recruiting more Conservative women MPs.