Simon Hoare

Simon Hoare MP
Member of Parliament for North Dorset
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 May 2015
Preceded by	Robert Walter
Majority	21,118
Personal details
Born	28 June 1969 Cardiff, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Kate Hoare
Children	3 daughters
Alma mater	Greyfriars, Oxford

Simon James Hoare (born 28 June 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dorset since May 2015.

Education

Hoare graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Modern History from the University of Oxford.^[1]

Professional career

Hoare worked at Conservative Central Office before becoming the personal assistant to the Conservative leader of Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council. Hoare has worked as a political officer at the Bow Group and is a member of the Tory Reform Group.

He began his public relations career in the 1990s when he joined Charles Barker. Following that he worked as head of property at Ketchum Inc., as an account director at PPS Group and as an external affairs director at the Environmental Services Association.^[2]

Following this, Hoare began his own public relations and lobbying company, Community Connect, of which he was managing director.^[1][2] Following the 2010 general election, Hoare became a director in the public affairs arm of Four Communications.^[3]

Hoare has also been a member of the Council of Governors of the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust.^[4]

Political career

Hoare was a Conservative cabinet member on West Oxfordshire District Council, a councillor on Oxfordshire County Council and a member of the executive of Witney Conservative Association alongside Prime Minister David Cameron.^[1][5] He contested Cardiff West at the 1997 general election, and Cardiff South and Penarth at the 2010 general election, coming second to Labour's Alun Michael.^[1]

Hoare was elected Member of Parliament for North Dorset at the 2015 general election, increasing his predecessor, Robert Walter's, majority from 7,625 to 21,118 votes.^[6]

Controversy

Dinner with Transport Minister

As a lobbyist, Hoare had a dinner with Theresa Villiers in August 2011, with her being Minister of State for Transport at the time. Hoare was representing developers Helioslough, who had been campaigning since 2006 to build a £400 million freight terminal on green belt land near St Albans, Herefordshire. The information was revealed when Conservative MP James Clappison tabled a parliamentary question on the meeting to Villiers.^[7]

On 10 September 2013, Conservative MP for St Albans, Anne Main, wrote to the Cabinet Secretary, Jeremy Heywood, alerting him to "an uncontrovertible breach" of the ministerial code by Villiers.^[8] Villiers was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing, but Main denounced the investigation as "whitewash".^[9]

Election literature

In Private Eye it was reported that whilst on his election leaflets he put that "My family and I live in the constituency, use local schools and are part of the community," he had only very recently moved to the constituency by the time that the leaflets had been distributed.^[1] It was stated that he was only selected to contest the seat in January and as late as 11 April 2015, an article in the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported that he was planning to move to the constituency.^[10][1] It was also reported that Hoare told the Bournemouth Daily Echo that he was "not a professional politician," which was contrary to his employment history in various pro-Conservative Party organisations.^[1][5]

He was similarly criticized when he stood in Cardiff South and Penarth at the 2010 general election.^[11]

References

1. "The New Boys and Girls: No. 5 Simon Hoare". Private Eye (1396) (London: Pressdram Ltd). 10 July 2015. p. 11.
2. "Moves: Senior Tory consultant Simon Hoare strengthens Four Politics’ management team". Communicate Magazine. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
3. "Public Affairs: The Week in Lobbying". PR Week. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
4. "Council of Governors Register of Interests" (PDF). South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
5. "Meet the councillor from Witney hoping to be North Dorset's next Conservative MP". Bournemouth Daily Echo. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
6. "Dorset North Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
7. Peev, Gerri (4 April 2012). "The transport minister, the lobbyist and a cosy chat over lunch about £400m rail deal". Daily Mail.
8. Watt, Nicholas (18 December 2013). "Labour demands response over Theresa Villiers's meeting with lobbyist". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
9. "Tory minister cleared of wrongdoing by No 10 over lunch with lobbyist". The Guardian. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
10. "Vote 2015: See who's standing as a parliamentary candidate for North Dorset". Bournemouth Daily Echo. 11 April 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
11. James, David (18 March 2010). "‘Local’ Cardiff candidate is Oxfordshire councillor". Wales Online.