Antoinette Sandbach

Antoinette Geraldine Mackeson-Sandbach (born 15 February 1969), known in politics as Antoinette Sandbach, is a Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament for Eddisbury at the 2015 general election. The following day, 8 May 2015, she resigned as the Welsh Assembly Member for the North Wales region. having been elected as a North Wales regional Assembly Member at the May 2011 election.

Personal life

Her family has farmed the Hafodunos estate in the Elwy valley of North Wales for six generations. She was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and the University of Nottingham. The eldest of four sisters, she practised law under her birth name of Antoinette Mackeson-Sandbach, but dropped the Mackeson when she entered politics. She was a criminal barrister in London for 12 years. Her daughter Sacha was born in 2002 but she split from Sacha's father in 2003 and moved back to Hafodunos in 2005. She lost a 5-day-old son, Sam, to SIDS in 2009 and is married to Matt, a sculptor.

Political career

Sandbach made a speech at a Save the Rhino fundraiser in 2007 that led to suggestions that she should enter politics. She rang the Tory office in Colwyn Bay and within three months was standing for the Welsh Assembly in Delyn (Flintshire). She then used her legal experience in a part-time job with Clwyd West MP David Jones.

In the 2010 general election, Sandbach contested the Labour-held parliamentary constituency of Delyn. She lost, but achieved a swing of 6.7% from Labour to Conservative. Following the death of Brynle Williams in 2011, she became a Conservative Regional Assembly Member for North Wales and Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in the Welsh Assembly.

In March 2015, Sandbach was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Conservative-held seat of Eddisbury in Cheshire, England. She held the safe Conservative seat with a majority of nearly 13,000, and promptly resigned from the Welsh Assembly, to be succeeded by Janet Haworth.

Sandbach was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.