Long-serving Beverley and Holderness MP, Climate Minister at COP27 and COP28, the minister who flew home from Dubai mid-negotiations in December 2023 to vote for the Rwanda Bill, and held his seat in July 2024 by 124 votes. Twenty four divisions against measures to prevent climate change against six in favour, on TheyWorkForYou''s record of his voting in the years bracketing his Climate brief.

Born 1962; Selwyn Cambridge to read Philosophy and Law, which he did not complete after his Cambridge listings magazine took off. Built that into CSL Publishing Ltd over the next two decades. Cambridge City Councillor for Cherry Hinton from 1998 to 2004; lost Cambridge in 2001. Elected for Beverley and Holderness in 2005 on a 2,580 majority that grew through the 2010s and collapsed to 124 over Labour in July 2024. Reform third on 8,198, the seat held by the narrowest of margins.

Chair of the Education Select Committee from June 2010 to March 2015, where he publicly clashed with Michael Gove on free schools and academies. Assistant Whip at the Treasury from July 2016 to January 2018. Junior minister at the Department for International Trade from January 2018 to September 2021, first as Minister for Investment and then as Minister for Exports under Liam Fox, Liz Truss and Anne Marie Trevelyan. Minister of State at the Foreign Office covering Europe from July to September 2022. Minister of State for Climate from 6 September 2022 to 7 February 2023, then Minister of State for Energy Security and Net Zero from 7 February 2023 to 12 April 2024 under Truss and Sunak. Privy Counsellor from September 2022. Left government three months before the election. Backbencher under Badenoch; joined the Panel of Chairs from January 2025.

The COP28 episode in Dubai in December 2023 is the defining recent moment. With negotiations on the "transition away from fossil fuels" text at their crunch point, he flew back to London on 11 December 2023 to vote for the Safety of Rwanda Bill at second reading, then returned. ITV called him AWOL; CARE International UK called it outrageous; the headline was that Sunak prioritised party management over climate diplomacy. The constituency association received £10,000 from the Hull fuel and heating oil group JR Rix & Sons and £2,000 from Bostonair while he was Climate Minister. TheyWorkForYou records him voting against measures to prevent climate change in 24 of 30 relevant divisions across his career.

Declared for Remain on 27 February 2016, then governed Leave throughout. TheyWorkForYou records "consistently voted against UK membership of the EU" with 11 votes against between 2016 and 2019. Voted Aye on the Rwanda Bill at every stage. Voted No on the Leadbeater assisted dying bill at second reading on 29 November 2024. Made the October 2022 fracking vote chaos worse by telling the Commons "quite clearly this is not a confidence vote" mid debate after a Downing Street message, deepening the Truss collapse.

In March 2025 he speculated publicly that Donald Trump was a Russian asset, then admitted he had "no hard and fast evidence". The 2009 expenses series caught him on a £426 bed linen and towels claim. The career has length, two select committee chairmanships and four ministerial briefs, none of which left a signature programme attached to his name; the 124 vote majority is what 19 years in the Commons has earned him.