Member of Parliament for Croydon Central

Elected: 2010

Bio:
Gavin Barwell was elected as the new Conservative MP for Croydon Central on 6th May.

He has lived in Croydon virtually his whole life, growing up in Shirley before moving to Monks Hill and then South Croydon. His favourite thing about the town is the great mix of people who live there.

He stood for election because he wants to see Croydon change for the better and he believes that if you want things to change you have to help make it happen. His role model in terms of being a good MP is Jack Weatherill.

As well as being the MP for Croydon Central, he is a Governor of the Whitgift Foundation and Chairman of the Governors at his old school, Trinity. He also helps to run a number of volunteer projects, including a group of over 500 volunteers who help to keep the parks and open spaces in Croydon Central clean.

He was voted Asian Voice's Conservative Backbencher of the Year 2011 in recognition of his response to last August's riots and was recently appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Minister for Cities.

In addition to urban policy, his main policy interests are education, crime and immigration and asylum.

Background
Gavin was educated at Trinity School before studying Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge.

After graduating, he joined the Conservative Research Department. Over the next thirteen years he held a number of positions at Conservative Campaign Headquarters culminating in his appointment in October 2003 as the Party's Director of Operations, responsible for a multi-million pound budget and over a hundred staff, sitting on the Board of the Party and working closely with Party Leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron. In May 2006, he stood down from this position and between then and his election as an MP he had his own consultancy business.

In May 1998, Gavin was elected to Croydon Council representing the Woodcote & Coulsdon West ward. In May 2006 when the Conservatives took control of the Council, he was appointed Chief Whip of the Conservative Group and he subsequently served as the Cabinet member for resources and customer services and the Cabinet member for community safety and cohesion before standing down from the Council in May 2010.

Gavin was born in 1972. He is married to Karen, a speech and language therapist who used to work at Applegarth School in New Addington before stopping work to bring up their three young boys Jack, Sam and Jamie.

His interests include sport (he's a big armchair fan and still plays a bit of football and tennis, though not to a very high standard!), reading and travel.




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