Scott Benton (politician)

Scott Lloyd Benton (born 1 July 1987) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected to at the 2019 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool South, whilst concurrently serving as a councillor on Calderdale Council.

Scott Benton

MP
Benton in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Blackpool South
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byGordon Marsden
Majority3,690 (11.3%)
Personal details
Born (1987-07-01) 1 July 1987[1]
Newport, Wales
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham

Early life and education

Benton was born in Newport in 1987, but spent most of his early life in West Yorkshire. At age 11 he attended his local state school in Brighouse, Rastrick High School.

He studied Theology as an undergraduate at the University of Nottingham and was awarded a 1st Class Honours Degree. During this time he also worked in the Students' Union bar. He remained at the university to study for a postgraduate degree and gained a Masters in Theology.

After leaving formal education, Benton worked as a primary school teacher.

Political career

In 2011, Benton was elected to Calderdale Council for the Brighouse Ward.[2] As a councillor he spent periods of time as Deputy Leader of the Council and then Leader of the Conservative Group. He was an active councillor in his ward assisting over 400 individuals with local issues in 2017.[3]

Alongside being a councillor Benton worked as a Parliamentary Assistant for the MP for Calder Valley, Craig Whittaker.[4]

He previously ran for Strangford at the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election[5] and for Huddersfield at the 2017 general election.[6]

Benton contested and won the Blackpool South seat at the 2019 general election. His win marks the first time since 1997 that the constituency has been represented by a Conservative. He achieved a swing of 9.4%, and was elected with a majority of 3,690 votes. His campaign focused on delivering Brexit, reopening Blackpool Airport for commercial flights and opposing the plans for development on Stanley Park Golf Course.

Since being elected Benton has helped secure over £129 million pounds in Government funding directly into Blackpool. This funding includes Blackpool being awarded the highest amount of any town in the whole country from the Government’s Towns Deal Fund.[7] The £39.5 million the Government awarded will be spent on numerous regeneration projects in Blackpool.

In his first year in Parliament Benton spoke 101 times in Parliament and asked 176 written Parliamentary questions to Ministers. These figures are far above the vast majority of new MPs and in excess of the number of speeches and questions asked by his predecessor. In addition to this Benton held 30 surgeries in the constituency, visited 139 local businesses and charities and helped over 5700 local people with issues in his first year in Parliament.

Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Benton was among the signatories of a letter to The Telegraph from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[8]

References
  1. "Members' Names Data Platform query". UK Parliament. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  2. "Brighouse: Election of District Councillors 2011 - 05/05/2011: Calderdale Council". Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.
  3. "Calderdale Council". www.calderdale.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  4. "Calderdale councillor selected as Conservative candidate for Blackpool South". www.halifaxcourier.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  5. Monaghan, John (3 February 2017). "Assembly candidates, with just one 'parachuted' in from Britain". The Irish News. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  6. Lavigueur, Nick (6 June 2017). "General Election 2017: Huddersfield candidates pitch for your vote". Huddersfield Examiner. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  7. "First Town Deals worth almost £180 million announced". GOV.UK. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  8. "Britain's heroes". Letter to the Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.CS1 maint: others (link)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Gordon Marsden		 Member of Parliament for Blackpool South
2019–present		 Incumbent


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