Anthony James Holland Mangnall (born 12 August 1989), is a British Conservative Party politician,[1] who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Totnes from 2019[2] to 2024. After minor boundary changes,[3] Mangnall stood for the re-named seat of South Devon in 2024 and become the first Conservative to lose the seat since 1923.[4]

Anthony Mangnall
Mangnall in 2020
Member of Parliament
for Totnes
In office
12 December 2019 – 30 May 2024
Preceded bySarah Wollaston
Succeeded byCaroline Voaden
(South Devon[a])
Personal details
Born (1989-08-12) 12 August 1989 (age 35)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materUniversity of Exeter

Mangnall worked in London and Singapore as a shipbroker before entering politics as a Special Adviser on foreign affairs.[5]

Early life and education

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The youngest son of Colonel Nicholas Mangnall OBE[6] and Carola née Sayers, he was brought up in Zimbabwe then Northern Ireland. After attending Shrewsbury School in Shropshire,[7] he read history, politics, and sociology at the University of Exeter, graduating as BA.[8]

Early career

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Mangnall served an undergraduate internship as a parliamentary researcher for William Hague,[9] then after graduating he embarked upon a career in shipbroking.

Joining Braemar ACM's Singapore office in 2012, Mangnall trained as a shipbroker chartering small tankers.[10] In 2014 he returned to London with Poten & Partners establishing himself in the West Africa small tankers market, thus gaining experience in evaluating national fuel security levels.

Appointed Private Secretary to William Hague in 2016,[8][11] Mangnall then managed Lord Hague's private and public interests including working on the closure of the UK’s domestic trade of ivory. A passionate conservationist, he also helped to establish a Transport Taskforce directed at eradicating the movement of illegally poached goods.[12]

Parliamentary career

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At the 2017 general election Mangnall contested the traditionally safe Labour seat of Warley, where although unsuccessful he did achieve the biggest swing to the Tories.[13] Prior to his selection on 20 July 2019 as the Conservative PPC for Totnes,[14] he was working as a Special Adviser to then Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns.[12][8] At the 2019 general election Magnall was returned to parliament as Conservative MP for Totnes with a majority of 12,724.[12] He defeated the incumbent Dr Sarah Wollaston who had defected from the Conservatives in February crossing the floor to sit as a Change UK MP, before standing at the general election as a Liberal Democrat candidate.[15]

Since his election to Parliament in 2019 Mangnall has been a regular contributor in debates on Bills regarding fishing, farming, international trade, development, foreign policy and defence. He briefly served as a Member of the Regulatory Reform Committee between March 2020 and May 2021, then the Procedures Committee between March 2020 to July 2020, before joining the International Trade Select Committee in November 2020.[16][17] The Department for International Trade (DIT) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) merged to form the Department for Business and Trade, Mangnall joined the Business and Trade Committee.[18]

Mangnall has voted against the Government in 10 votes out of 889, that is 1.1% of his votes.[19] He was the first of the 2019 Conservative intake to defy the Government Whip during the Telecommunications Bill which proposed that Huawei provide the UK's telecommunication infrastructure network.[20] The Government then reversed its position after this vote and blocked Huawei from building the UK's 5G network. Mangnall was a vocal opponent of the cut to Foreign Aid believing the UK's role in international development to be globally leading and in the national interest. Despite failing to win this vote on Foreign Aid, the then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak MP agreed to return the Foreign Aid budget to 0.7% when the independent Office for Budget Responsibility’s fiscal forecast stated that, on a sustainable basis, the UK is not borrowing to finance day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling.[21]

During the COVID-19 pandemic Mangnall persistently rebelled on COVID measures and opposed the second and third national lockdowns. He also advocated against NHS staff being forced to have vaccinations and the mandate extending the wearing of face-coverings to most indoor settings. Mangnall stated in Parliament that "no government should ever use fear as a tool to try and persuade its citizens", and that the UK needs to "build up its resilience and reduce its restrictions."

Mangnall's work on the International Trade Committee has established his reputation as a vocal contributor about the need for Parliament to have greater scrutiny over UK trade deals. He has gained cross-party support in the House of Commons for all new free trade deals to be given significant debating time before a vote. Despite having supported UK's departure from the European Union, Mangnall has claimed to be a strong proponent of free trade and in 2020 he co-authored a paper with the Policy Exchange on the benefits of UK membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.[22]

In February 2022 Mangnall declared that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, to the 1922 Committee. He asserted that "standards in public life matter", concluding that Boris Johnson's behaviour had fallen short of the mark expected by the British public. Mangnall gave one interview to the Daily Telegraph journalist Chris Hope outlining his reasons.[23]

Mangnall is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Action on Conflict and Global Britain, Vice-Chairman of the APPG on Photonics and Quantum and of the APPG on Shellfish Aquaculture, and a member of the APPG on Ukraine. He was formerly the Chairman of the APPG for the UK's Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. He also co-chairs the Conservative Friends of International Development.[24][25] In 2020 he co-authored a paper for the One Nation Conservatives exploring how to spend Aid more effectively.[26] Mangnall is also an Ambassador for the HALO Trust.

In 2020, Mangnall introduced a Private Member's Bill to the Commons called the "Recall of MPs (Change of Party Affiliation) Bill" intending to create a recall process should a Member of Parliament voluntarily change party affiliation without mandate from the electorate. The bill did not progress beyond its second reading in the Commons.[27][28]

Family

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On 12 May 2023, Mangnall married Harriet, only daughter of Paul Cherry, of Hertfordshire, and Caroline née Nall-Cain,[29] the Hon. David Nall-Cain, and Lady Katherine Palmer, sister of the 4th Earl of Selborne GBE DL FRS.[30]

Scion of a Cheshire gentry family formerly seated at Christleton Grange, his father, Colonel Nicholas Mangnall OBE,[31] whose maternal grandfather was Colonel Jack Holland DSO MC, of Holland & Holland "fame", served in the Royal Green Jackets. His aunt, Caroline née Mangnall (Lady Bunbury) is the wife of Sir Michael Bunbury Bt KCVO, having by him two sons and a daughter.[32] Richmal Mangnall was a collateral ancestor and Ernest Mangnall a kinsman.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The Totnes constituency was renamed "South Devon" at the 2024 general election, with minor boundary changes.

References

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  1. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  2. ^ "Members Sworn". parliament.uk. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Totnes (UK Parliament constituency)".
  4. ^ "Totnes (UK Parliament constituency)".
  5. ^ https://www.anthonymangnall.co.uk/news/anthony-mangnall-mp-meets-singapore-high-commissioner www.anthonymangnall.co.uk [bare URL]
  6. ^ Holland & Holland: 'The Royal' Gunmaker by Donald Dallas
  7. ^ "The Salopian" (PDF). p. 62. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b c Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". Politics Home. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Register Of Interests Of Members' Secretaries And Research Assistants [as at 28th October 2011]". parliament.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ^ www.ics.org.uk
  11. ^ Booth, Richard; Clark, Daniel (13 December 2019). "Totnes General Election 2019 results live". Devon Live. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  12. ^ a b c "Anthony Mangnall". Totnes Conservatives. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  13. ^ Ireland, Shane (9 June 2017). "UK General Election 2017 results: Warley held by Labour". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  14. ^ Merritt, Anita (21 July 2019). "The battle to become the next Totnes MP steps up a gear". Devon Live. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  15. ^ "Totnes MP Sarah Wollaston loses seat after party switch". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  16. ^ "Anthony Mangnall MP, Parliamentary Career". parliament.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  17. ^ "Membership of Regulatory Reform Committee announced". parliament.uk. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  18. ^ "Business and Trade Committee". parliament.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  19. ^ "The Public Whip — Voting Record - Anthony Mangnall MP, Totnes (25868)". www.publicwhip.org.uk. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  20. ^ "Generation Next: The Anthony Mangnall interview". Politics Home. 26 November 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  21. ^ "Government sets out conditions for returning to 0.7% aid target". GOV.UK. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  22. ^ "Looking East: The Case for UK Membership of CPTPP". The Centre for Policy Studies. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  23. ^ Chopper's Politics: Anthony Mangnall MP on his letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson | Podcast, 2 February 2022, retrieved 5 January 2023
  24. ^ "Register of APPGs (as of 10 March 2021), Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative"". parliament.uk. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  25. ^ "Daily Telegraph, "'A commitment to the world's poorest': Government urged to preserve aid budget"". telegraph.co.uk. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  26. ^ "One Nation Caucus, "Global Britain and Development" Paper". one-nation-conservatives.com. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  27. ^ "Christian Wakeford backed bill mandating by-elections for MPs who switch party before jumping to Labour". Manchester Evening News. 19 January 2022.
  28. ^ "Recall of MPs (Change of Party Affiliation) Bill". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  29. ^ www.dartmouth-today.co.uk
  30. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  31. ^ www.thegazette.co.uk
  32. ^ www.debretts.com
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Totnes
20192024
Succeeded by
Caroline Voaden[1]