Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
The Lord Ashcombe | |
Office1: | Member of the House of Lords |
Status1: | Lord Temporal |
Term Label1: | as an elected hereditary peer |
Term Start1: | 20 October 2022 |
Predecessor1: | The 15th Earl of Home |
Birth Name: | Mark Edward Cubitt |
Birth Date: | 29 February 1964 |
Party: | Conservative |
Mark Edward Cubitt, 5th Baron Ashcombe (born 29 February 1964), is a British hereditary peer and Conservative politician. In an October 2022 by-election, he was elected to replace The Earl of Home in the House of Lords following Home's death in August.[1] He is a second cousin of Queen Camilla.
According to his candidate statement, Cubitt has a degree in civil engineering from Imperial College London, and has spent his career in the insurance industry, specialising in the energy sector. He lives in London and Hampshire.[2]
Ashcombe first stood in a House of Lords by-election in November 2015, receiving a single vote and coming 9th of 14 candidates.[3]
His second by-election outing was in July 2018, where he received two votes and came 4th of 11 candidates.[4]
In January 2019, Ashcombe tried again, polling 13 first preference votes, but dropped to 9th place of 17 candidates.[5]
Ashcombe's fourth attempt was in January 2021, when on a low turnout he received a single vote, coming 9th of 21 candidates.[6]
He skipped July 2021 by-election.
His fifth outing was in February 2022 when he received 5 votes and jumped to 3rd place of 10 candidates.[7] Just a month later Ashcombe gained 12 votes to come 2nd of 9 candidates.[8] But in July 2022 he dropped to 7 votes and whilst coming 2nd of 12 candidates on the first count, he slipped to third place on the fifth count due to poor transfers from eliminated candidates.[9] In early October he received 18 votes but slipped to 4th place in a field of 21 candidates.[10]
In late October 2022, at the 9th time of asking, Ashcombe was elected with 10 first-preference votes, and finally elected on the 6th count.[11]