| Marco Longhi | |
| Office2: | Member of Parliament for Dudley North |
| Predecessor2: | Ian Austin |
| Successor2: | Constituency abolished |
| Term Start2: | 12 December 2019 |
| Term End2: | 30 May 2024 |
| Birth Date: | 1967 4, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Walsall, Staffordshire, England |
| Nationality: | British |
| Party: | Conservative |
Marco Andrea Longhi (born 22 April 1967)[1] is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dudley North from 2019 to 2024.
Marco Longhi was born on 22 April 1967 in Walsall and grew up in Rome, the son of an Italian airline worker, Antonio Longhi, and a British mother, Josephine Clarke. He trained as a pilot and later studied at Manchester University, following this by working for a time in civil engineering.[2] He then worked in the oil and gas industry, which included five years in South America.[3]
In 1999, Longhi was elected as a Conservative councillor in Walsall (where his grandfather Wilfred Clarke had been Mayor in 1978), and became Mayor in 2017 and again in 2018.[2]
At the 2005 general election Longhi unsuccessfully ran for election in Dudley South, finishing second with 34.5% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour Party MP Ian Pearson.[4]
Longhi was elected as MP for Dudley North at the 2019 general election, winning with 63.1% of the vote and a majority of 11,533 votes.[5] [6]
On 22 April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he became the first ever MP to speak in the Commons chamber via remote video link,[7] asking a question of the Wales Secretary, Simon Hart.[8]
Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Longhi was among the signatories of a letter to The Daily Telegraph in November 2020 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'".[9]
On 23 August 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Longhi as the UK's trade envoy to Brazil.[10]
In May 2022, Longhi called for the "Stop Brexit Man" Steve Bray to be "locked up in the Tower with a loudspeaker playing 'Land of Hope and Glory' on repeat at maximum volume" because of the disruption he causes. He added that Bray was "griping for any little bit of press coverage" and claimed that staff in his Westminster office could not hear "distressed constituents on the phone" because of the loud music that Bray played.[11]
In June 2022, Longhi, in a private message directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, about the government's Rwanda asylum plan, said, "Archbishop, as you appear to feel so strongly about this, will you give up two of your palaces for illegal migrants and pay for their accommodation?"[12]
Longhi endorsed Kemi Badenoch during the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[13] After Badenoch was eliminated, he backed Liz Truss.[14]
In October 2022, following the resignation of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Longhi announced that he would be supporting previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the subsequent leadership election.[15]
Longhi was made honorary president of right-wing pressure group Turning Point UK in November 2022.[16] The group reportedly has links to the far-right, including conspiracy theorists such as InfoWars.[17]
In February 2024, Longhi, who is a landlord owning ten properties, opposed the government's Renter's Reform bill, which would increase the rights of tenants in rental properties and included a manifesto pledge to ban no-fault evictions.[18]
At the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Longhi was accused of "dog-whistle" tactics against his Labour opponent Sonia Kumar. His campaign sent leaflets to British Pakistani and Kashmiri Muslims drawing attention to Kumar's Hindu surname (writing it in capital letters and underlined), arguing that she would not support Kashmir while in Parliament.[19] Longhi lost his seat to Kumar at the general election.[20]
Longhi was the director of property management company Justmove (Lettings) Limited, and owns ten houses in Walsall.[21] [22]