Introducing Mike Penning, MP

Mike was born in North London in 1957 and was educated in Essex at Appleton and King Edmund Comprehensive Schools. He has been married to Angela for 19 years and has two daughters Adele, 17 and Abby, 15.

He joined the Army as a boy soldier and served with the Grenadier Guards in Northern Ireland, Kenya and Germany; he also undertook ceremonial duties in London including the Trooping of the Colour. On leaving the Army Mike served as a full time fireman in Essex for many years before going into the family business and later, after several career changes into political journalism.

Mike is a hard-hitting campaigner. He is always happiest when he can take up issues for those residents of Hemel Hempstead Constituency that come to him for help. He is fiercely proud of his working class roots and feels that his background allows him to have an understanding and empathy with the problems that affect peoples everyday lives.

Mike has many interests outside of politics. Along with being a dedicated family man, he is passionate about sport, especially Rugby Union and Football.

Mike came into politics late in his career. He first brought his skills to the political arena in 1997, when he ran Sir Teddy Taylor's successful General Election campaign in Southend. Since 1997 he has been an advisor to the Shadow Cabinet under William Hague and, until recently, was Iain Duncan Smith's Deputy Head of Media. In 2001 Mike stood as a candidate in the safe Labour seat of Thurrock.

In May 2005 Mike was elected as Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead when he ousted the sitting Labour MP.

Mike is a strong believer in the traditions and values of our country and is a passionate defender of our constitution and that includes keeping our own currency. The first job of any politician is to serve his country and Mike has a proven track record here for most of his working life.

He feels that for the public to engage with politicians, the politician must first gain their respect. This he does by showing honesty and integrity. His philosophy is "if you say you are going to do something you should follow it through."

Since winning the election in 2005, Mike has taken up many campaigns that affect the people of Hemel Hempstead, most notably the campaign to Save Hemel Hospital, the fight for compensation for Dexion pensioners who lost their pensions and the campaign for a public inquiry into the Buncefield disaster.

In January 2006 Mike was elected to the Executive Committee of the prestigious 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.