Becoming an MP with Miriam Cates MP & Anthony Browne MP

Miriam Cates - Born and grew up in Sheffield where she attended her local comprehensive school. She went on to study Genetics at Cambridge University before returning to Sheffield and training as a science teacher. Miriam taught in Sheffield secondary schools for a number of years before taking a career break to riase her three children were small. After moving to a village on the edge of Sheffield, Miriam became involved in her local community, serving on the Parish Council and volunteering at the local school. Miriam was selected as the Parliamentary Candidate for her home seat of Penistone & Stocksbridge in October 2018 and was elected as MP in the 2019 election. As the MP for a ‘left behind’ area of the UK, Miriam has a keen interest in Levelling Up, and is also passionate about education and families.

Anthony Browne - Despite being scientifically trained, Anthony became a national journalist, working as business reporter and economics correspondent at the BBC, reporting on national television and radio news, including the Today programme. He was economics correspondent, health editor and environment editor of the Observer, and then environment editor, Europe correspondent and chief political correspondent at the Times. He covered the Iraq war for the Times, where he was shot at by American troops.

Anthony was then asked to run Policy Exchange think tank, where he developed policies for David Cameron ahead of the 2010 general election. When Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London in 2008, he asked Anthony to join his team. Anthony worked for Boris in his first term as Mayor, in charge of economic and business policy in London, and then wrote his 2012 election manifesto.

Anthony became CEO of the British Bankers’ Association, leading the banking industry through the reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. He resolved the LIBOR crisis, negotiated a deadline to the PPI miss-selling scandal, and set up the banking industry’s first Consumer Panel to encourage it to focus on the needs of customers. After the 2016 referendum, he lead Brexit negotiations for the banks with the Government and the EU before leaving the Association in June 2017 when the BBA merged with five other trade associations to form UK Finance.

Anthony is the co-founder of the HomeOwners Alliance, Britain’s only consumer group to help homeowners with problems, and to lead on reforms of the housing industry. The Alliance has been very successful in pushing reforms of stamp duty and the leasehold system. He has also been a member of the board of a range of financial technology companies.

Anthony was elected as MP for South Cambridgeshire at the general election on 12 December 2019.  In January 2020 he was elected as the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Environment. In February 2020 he was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee.