Bernard Jenkin

Sir Bernard Christison Jenkin (born 9 April 1959) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich and North Essex since 2010. He also serves as chair of the Liaison Committee. He was first elected to represent Colchester North in 1992, and went on to represent North Essex before the Harwich and North Essex constituency was created. Jenkin was elected chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee in May 2010. He is a longstanding critic of the European Union, believing that EU membership undermined the United Kingdom's national sovereignty, and he was one of the Maastricht Rebels during the premiership of John Major. In the 2016 EU referendum he supported Brexit and from 2017 he was one of the most vocal supporters of the Eurosceptic pressure group Leave Means Leave. Early life Jenkin was born on 9 April 1959 in Wood Green, Middlesex, to Patrick Jenkin, who subsequently became a Conservative MP and Cabinet minister, and later still a life peer (as Baron Jenkin of Roding); and Monica Jenkin (née Graham). He is a descendant of the scientist Fleeming Jenkin. He was educated at Highgate School, William Ellis School (also in Highgate) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a choral exhibition and gained a BA honours degree in English literature in 1982. He was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1982. He worked for Ford and the private equity company 3i as Manager of Legal & General Ventures from 1989 to 1992. From 1992 to 1995, he was an advisor to Legal & General Group plc. Parliamentary career Declaring that he wanted to "illustrate that people in the south-east haven't forgotten about Scotland", Jenkin stood for election in Glasgow Central at the 1987 general election. At the 1992 general election, his 33rd birthday, Jenkin was elected as MP for Colchester North.