Richard Holden

Richard John Holden (born 11 March 1985) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Durham since the 2019 general election. Holden is the first Conservative MP in the constituency's history. Prior to becoming an MP, he had worked as a special adviser in a number of government departments.

Early life and career

Holden grew up in Grindleton, a village in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire. He attended Grindleton Primary School, and Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton. He later went on to study government and history at the London School of Economics.

He started work at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) in August 2007, initially as a data administrator before becoming a press officer. He was promoted to deputy head of press in 2012.

In the 2015 general election he stood as a Conservative candidate in the safe Labour seat of Preston. After the election, he became a special adviser to former Leader of the House of Lords Tina Stowell, Baroness Stowell of Beeston before leaving to work for Theresa May's 2016 Conservative Party leadership election campaign. He also worked for Stowell's successor as Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, before becoming special adviser to Secretary of State for Defence, Sir Michael Fallon, between October 2016 and April 2017. He was an associate director for Newington Communications between September and November 2017.

Holden became a special adviser to former Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling in December 2018 before leaving to work on Boris Johnson's 2019 Conservative Party leadership election campaign. He then worked as a special adviser to Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson from August to November 2019. When Parliament was dissolved for the election, Holden began working for CCHQ before being selected for North West Durham.

Parliamentary career

Holden was elected as the MP for North West Durham in the 2019 general election with a majority of 1,144 votes. He is the first Conservative MP to represent the constituency. It had previously been considered a notionally safe Labour seat as it had been represented by a member of the party since its re-establishment in 1950.

Holden led a campaign with other local MPs to reverse the increase in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) paid on new motorhomes. This was increased in September 2019 in response to EU regulation 2018/1832. In the March 2020 budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced that the VED increase would be reversed.

Holden is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Related Harm and is campaigning for online and TV casino games to face the same regulation as high street FOBTs.

Since being elected, Holden has written a fortnightly column for the political blog ConservativeHome. He has been a member of the Public Accounts Committee and European Statutory Instruments Committee since March 2020.

Personal life

He is in a relationship with Charlotte Ivers, political correspondent for radio station Talkradio, who previously worked as a special adviser in 10 Downing Street.