Flick Drummond Explained

Flick Drummond
Office:Member of Parliament
for Meon Valley
Term Start:12 December 2019
Term End:30 May 2024
Predecessor:George Hollingbery
Successor:Constituency abolished
Office2:Member of Parliament
for Portsmouth South
Term Start2:7 May 2015
Term End2:3 May 2017
Predecessor2:Mike Hancock
Successor2:Stephen Morgan
Birth Name:Felicia Jane Beatrix Shepherd[1]
Birth Date:16 June 1962[2]
Birth Place:Aden, Aden Protectorate
(now Yemen)
Party:Conservative
Spouse:Hereward John Heneage Drummond
Children:4
Education:Roedean School, East Sussex
Alma Mater:University of Hull
University of Southampton
Branch:Territorial Army
Intelligence Corps

Felicia Jane "Flick" Beatrix Drummond (née Shepherd; born 16 June 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Meon Valley from 2019 until 2024, having previously represented Portsmouth South from 2015 to 2017.

Early life

Drummond was born on 16 June 1962 in Aden, then part of the Aden Protectorate. She is the daughter of diplomat George Anthony Shepherd (1931-1996), who had served in the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, Trucial Oman Scouts, and 2nd Royal Tank Regiment,[3] and Sarah Eirlys, née Adamson.[4] She was privately educated at Roedean School, before studying at both Hull University and Southampton University. Drummond is also a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies and has completed two terms on the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme

Political career

Drummond sat on Winchester City Council from 1996 to 2000, before being expelled from the council after failing to attend a meeting for six months.[5] During this time, she moved to the United States.

Drummond returned to the UK in 2004, and was selected to stand for Parliament in Southampton Itchen in the 2005 general election, where she won 26.8% of the vote and came second behind the incumbent Labour MP John Denham.[6] At the 2010 general election, Drummond stood for Parliament in Portsmouth South, where she won 33.3% of the vote and came second behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock.[7] [8]

At the 2015 general election, Drummond contested Portsmouth South again, and was elected to Parliament, winning 34.8% of the vote and a majority of 5,241 over the Liberal Democrats' Gerald Vernon-Jackson.[9] From 2015 to 2017, Drummond was a member of the Women and Equalities Committee.

Drummond campaigned to remain in the European Union in the 2016 Referendum.[10] She stated in 2016 that the referendum result diminished and would lessen Britain's influence in Europe.[11]

At the 2017 general election, Drummond was defeated in Portsmouth South by Labour's Stephen Morgan, coming second with 37.6% of the vote.[12]

In October 2018, Drummond was elected Voluntary Director of the Conservative Policy Forum by the National Conservative Convention.

In November 2019, Drummond was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Meon Valley to replace the retiring incumbent George Hollingbery. At the 2019 general election, she was elected as MP for Meon Valley with 64.3% of the vote and a majority of 23,555.[13] As a consequence she stood down as the Conservative candidate for Hampshire at the 2020 England and Wales police and crime commissioner elections.[14]

Between February and September 2020 Drummond served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Anne-Marie Trevelyan as Secretary of State for International Development[15] before becoming PPS to Thérèse Coffey at the Department for Work and Pensions.[16] In October 2022, Drummond was appointed to the Commons Public Accounts Committee and the Education Select Committee.

As a result the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, her Meon Valley constituency was dissolved ahead of the 2024 general election, with its territory divided between several new or revised constituencies. On 5 April 2023, she faced a vote of local party members to become the candidate for the new seat of Fareham and Waterlooville, which takes in the majority of the current Meon Valley constituency; her opponent was Fareham MP and then Home Secretary Suella Braverman.[17] Braverman won the vote by 77 votes to 54.[18]

In July 2023, Drummond was selected to contest the 2024 general election as the Conservative candidate for the redrawn Winchester constituency, which had its boundaries changed to include slightly less than a quarter of Drummond's abolished Meon Valley seat.[19] [20] She lost to Liberal Democrat Danny Chambers.

Personal life

In 1987, she married Heneage Drummond, a descendant of the Jacobite soldier William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan, of the family of the Earls of Perth. They have four children and three grandchildren.[21] Before entering politics, Drummond was a lay inspector for Ofsted. She has also served as Chair of Governors at Milton Park Primary School and a trustee of Salterns Academy Trust in Portsmouth.

Publications

Notes and References

  1. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3107
  2. Book: Dale . Iain . Smith . Jacqui . The Honourable Ladies : Volume II: Profiles of Women MPs 1997-2019. . 2019 . Biteback Publishing . La Vergne . 9781785904479 .
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3107
  4. Who was Who, St Martin's Press, 1996, p. 527
  5. News: Gearing up for a good, clean fight . 12 October 2023 . Daily Echo . 19 April 2000 . en.
  6. Web site: Election Data 2005 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111015054249/http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/electdata_2005ob.txt . 15 October 2011 . 18 October 2015 . Electoral Calculus.
  7. Web site: Election Data 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130726162034/http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/electdata_2010.txt . 26 July 2013 . 17 October 2015 . Electoral Calculus.
  8. Web site: Politics . the Guardian.
  9. News: Portsmouth South parliamentary constituency - Election 2019 - BBC News . 2024-02-08 . en-GB.
  10. News: Goodenough . Tom . 16 February 2016 . Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence? . The Spectator . 11 October 2016 . 22 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161022111657/http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/which-tory-mps-back-brexit-who-doesnt-and-who-is-still-on-the-fence/ . dead .
  11. News: Elgot . Jessica . Mason . Rowena . 2 October 2016 . Don't trust Brexit 'three blind mice', says Tory former minister . The Guardian . 2 October 2016.
  12. News: Portsmouth South parliamentary constituency - Election 2019 . BBC News . 2024-02-08 . en-GB.
  13. News: Meon Valley parliamentary constituency . BBC News.
  14. Web site: New MP Flick Drummond stands down as Tory PCC candidate. Hampshire Chronicle. 3 January 2020 . en. 20 February 2020.
  15. News: Flick appointed PPS . 24 December 2021 . Conservative and Unionist Party . 25 February 2020.
  16. News: Flick joins Department for Work and Pensions . 22 February 2023 . Conservative and Unionist Party . 22 February 2023.
  17. Web site: Atkinson . William . 2023-02-28 . Braverman, Drummond, and Fareham. The Home Secretary is not the local champion that some party members are looking for. . 2023-03-19 . Conservative Home . en-GB.
  18. News: James . Liam . 5 April 2023 . Suella Braverman wins 'battle of Waterlooville' in Tory contest for new seat 6 April 2023 . 6 April 2023 . Independent.
  19. Web site: Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK? . House of Commons Library . 14 November 2023.
  20. Web site: 2023-07-21 . Conservatives choose candidate for the next General Election . 2023-07-23 . Hampshire Chronicle . en.
  21. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3107