{{Short description|British Conservative politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Sir David Evennett | honorific_suffix = | image = Official portrait of Rt Hon Sir David Evennett MP crop 2.jpg | caption = Official portrait, 2019 | office = Lord Commissioner of the Treasury | term_start = 8 September 2022 | term_end = 27 October 2022 | parliament1 = | majority1 = | term_start1 = 4 September 2012 | term_end1 = 9 January 2018 | predecessor1 = Brooks Newmark | successor1 = Andrew Stephenson | office2 = Assistant Government Whip | prime_minister2 = Boris Johnson | term_start2 = 8 July 2022 | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | office3 = Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Business Engagement | prime_minister3 = | predecessor3 = Paul Scully | successor3 = Saqib Bhatti | term_start3 = 5 August 2019 | term_end3 = 7 September 2022 | office4 = Member of Parliament <br /> for Bexleyheath and Crayford | parliament4 = | majority4 = | term_start4 = 5 May 2005 | term_end4 = 30 May 2024 | predecessor4 = Nigel Beard | successor4 = Daniel Francis | birth_name = David Anthony Evennett<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=61961 |supp= |page=11776 |date=19 June 2017}}</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1949|6|3}} | birth_place = Romford, Essex, England | death_date = | death_place = | party = Conservative Party | occupation = Politician | relations = | alma_mater = London School of Economics | spouse = Marilyn Smith | children = | website = | footnotes = | office5 = Member of Parliament <br /> for Erith and Crayford | term_start5 = 9 June 1983 | term_end5 = 8 April 1997 | predecessor5 = James Wellbeloved | successor5 = ''Constituency abolished'' | prime_minister1 = {{ubl|David Cameron|Theresa May}} | leader3 = Boris Johnson | term_end2 = 7 September 2022 | prime_minister = Liz Truss }} '''Sir David Anthony Evennett''' (born 3 June 1949, Romford) is a former Conservative politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexleyheath and Crayford from 2005 to 2024<ref name="Retirement">{{Cite tweet |number=1794009570672533645 |author=Sir David Evennett MP |user=DavidEvennettMP |title=Statement from Rt Hon Sir David Evennett MP |date=25 May 2024 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527063205/https://x.com/DavidEvennettMP/status/1794009570672533645 |url-status=live |quote=With the unexpected calling of a General Election on Thursday 4 July, I have been considering my position and have decided to step down from active politics.|access-date=2024-05-24 |location=House of Commons, London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The MPs who have announced they are standing down at the next general election |url=https://news.sky.com/story/the-mps-who-have-announced-they-are-standing-down-at-the-next-general-election-13102764 |website=Sky News |access-date=27 May 2024 |date=24 May 2024}}</ref> and for Erith and Crayford from 1983 to 1997. He served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 2012 to 2018, and briefly during 2022.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Ministerial Appointments: September - October 2022 |author=Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street |date=6 September 2022 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527064213/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-september-2022 |url-status=live |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointments-september-2022 |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Rt Hon David Evennett MP |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/david-evennett |access-date=2022-09-09 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref>
He held several education related offices during his parliamentary career. He was a member of the Education, Science and Arts Committee from 1986 to 1992<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Rt Hon David Evennett |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/david-evennett |access-date=2026-04-30 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref> and later member of the Education & Skills Select Committee from 2005 to 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Committee Membership - Committees - UK Parliament |url=https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/46/education-skills/membership/former/?page=2 |access-date=2026-04-30 |website=committees.parliament.uk |language=en}}</ref> Outside of committee, he was a PPS to the Minister of State at the Department for Education from 1992 to 1993, the Shadow Minister for Skills from 2009 to 2010,<ref name=":0" /> and PPS to the Education Secretary from 2010 to 2012.
He did not run for re-election in 2024 and retired. He published a personal and political memoir titled ''The Road to Crayford'' in 2024.
==Early life== Evennett was educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School and the London School of Economics, where he was awarded an MSc in Economics. He began his career as a teacher at Ilford County High School between 1972 and 1974, from which post he resigned when he was elected to represent the Woodford ward on Redbridge London Borough Council (1974–78). From 1974 to 1981 he was also a marine insurance broker at Lloyd's, and he worked as a lecturer in management between 1997 and 2005.<ref name="bio"/>
At the 1979 general election he contested the Labour seat of Hackney South and Shoreditch where he came second to Ronald Brown.
==Parliamentary career== {{BLP sources section|date=January 2023}}
===Erith and Crayford=== Evennett was elected as the Conservative MP for Erith and Crayford at the 1983 general election, when he defeated James Wellbeloved who had defected from the Labour Party to the newly formed Social Democrats in 1981. Evennett gained the seat with a majority of 920 votes over Wellbeloved. He remained the MP until the seat was redrawn in boundary changes at the 1997 general election.
In Parliament he joined the Education and Science Select committee in 1986. Following the 1992 general election he was appointed the parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Department for Education, Emily Blatch.
In 1993, he became the PPS to John Redwood, the Secretary of State for Wales, until 1995 when he was made PPS to the Home Office minister David Maclean, and then PPS to Gillian Shephard at the Department for Education in 1996, where he remained until he was defeated at the 1997 general election.
===Bexleyheath and Crayford=== He contested the newly drawn Bexleyheath and Crayford seat in 1997, but lost to Labour's Nigel Beard by 3,415 votes. He narrowly lost to Beard again at the 2001 general election but reduced his majority to 1,475. He was re-elected to Parliament for Bexleyheath and Crayford at the 2005 general election, ousting Beard by 4,551 votes. By winning back a seat which, albeit after boundary changes, he had lost in 1997, he became the only MP to have lost his seat in the Labour landslide of 1997, fought the same seat unsuccessfully in 2001 and then to have fought and won it back at the second attempt.
Following his re-election in 2005, he was made a member of the Education & Skills Select Committee and was appointed as an Opposition Whip by Michael Howard, and remained a whip under the new leadership of David Cameron. In January 2009, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Skills in the Conservative Innovation, Universities and Skills team.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Parliamentary Career for Sir David Evennett|url=https://members.parliament.uk/member/1198/career|publisher=UK Parliament|access-date=11 July 2022}}</ref>
At the 2010 general election he was returned with a majority of 10,344, and was appointed PPS to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education. In 2012, he was appointed Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury (Government Whip) and remained in the role until January 2018.
In March 2015, he was appointed to the Privy Council and therefore granted the title The Right Honourable.<ref>{{cite web|title=Privy Council appointments: March 2015|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/privy-council-appointments-march-2015|website=Press release|publisher=Prime Minister's Office|access-date=13 March 2015|date=12 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153748/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/privy-council-appointments-march-2015|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
From January 2016 to July 2016, he was the Acting Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, to cover the maternity leave of Tracey Crouch.<ref>{{cite web|title=David Evennett MP appointed acting Sport, Tourism and Heritage Minister|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/david-evennett-mp-appointed-acting-sport-tourism-and-heritage-minister|website=Press release|publisher=Department for Culture, Media and Sport|access-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409134531/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/david-evennett-mp-appointed-acting-sport-tourism-and-heritage-minister|archive-date=9 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
On 18 May 2018, it was announced that David Evennett would be knighted.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/queen-confers-peerages-18-may-2018|title=Queen confers Peerages: 18 May 2018|work=GOV.UK|access-date=2018-05-21|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522015527/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/queen-confers-peerages-18-may-2018|archive-date=22 May 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
In July 2019, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Evennett as a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-07-29 |title=Evennett Appointed Conservative Party Vice Chairman |url=https://www.bexleyheathandcrayford.com/news/evennett-appointed-conservative-party-vice-chairman |access-date=2026-04-30 |website=Bexleyheath and Crayford |language=en}}</ref> On 6 June 2022, after a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Boris Johnson was called, Evennett announced that he would be supporting the Prime Minister.<ref>{{Cite tweet |author=Sir David Evennett MP |user=DavidEvennettMP |number=1533761902630821892 |title=I will be supporting the PM in the vote this evening. I do not believe this is the right moment for a leadership contest, which would be extremely harmful to the country |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240527063842/https://x.com/DavidEvennettMP/status/1533761902630821892 |url-status=live |date=6 June 2022}}</ref> During the premiership of Liz Truss, he returned to his former role as Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury (Government Whip).
On 24 May 2024, Evennett announced that he did not plan to stand for re-election in the 2024 general election.<ref name="Retirement" />
==Personal life== He married Marilyn Smith in 1975 in Redbridge; the couple have two sons and two grandchildren.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|title=Biography of David Evennett|url=https://davidevennett.wordpress.com/about-david/|date=21 June 2011|access-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003231330/https://davidevennett.wordpress.com/about-david/|archive-date=3 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * [http://www.davidevennett.org.uk David Evennett -- personal website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807132550/http://www.davidevennett.org.uk/ |date=7 August 2007 }}, davidevennett.org.uk * {{UK MP links |parliament=david-evennett/1198 |publicwhip=David_Evennett |theywork=11408}} * [http://www.newsguardian.co.uk/news/tourism-minister-visits-north-tyneside-1-7884746 "Tourism Minister visits North Tyneside"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825065201/http://www.newsguardian.co.uk/news/tourism-minister-visits-north-tyneside-1-7884746 |date=25 August 2017 }}, newsguardian.co.uk * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/50.stm Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213153908/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/50.stm |date=13 February 2009 }}, bbc.co.uk
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef | before = James Wellbeloved }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Erith and Crayford | years = 1983–1997 }} {{s-non | reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-bef | before = Nigel Beard}} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Bexleyheath and Crayford | years = 2005–2024 }} {{s-aft|after=Daniel Francis}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evennett, David}} Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Councillors in the London Borough of Redbridge Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:UK MPs 2010–2015 Category:UK MPs 2015–2017 Category:UK MPs 2017–2019 Category:UK MPs 2019–2024 Category:People from Romford Category:People educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Knights Bachelor