Vicky Ford was first elected in 2017 as the Member of Parliament for Chelmsford. She is known to be one of the hardest working Members of Parliament and in her first two years as an MP she spoke over 600 times in the House of Commons.
From September 2022 to October 2022 Vicky served as Cabinet Minister for Development at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
From September 2021 to September 2022 Vicky served as a Minister to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. At a time of global uncertainty, Britain’s case for building deeper economic, security and diplomatic partnerships remains key, especially for example with Commonwealth nations.
From February 2020 to September 2021 Vicky served as Minister for Children and Families in the Department for Education, with responsibilities for vulnerable children. Prior to this she was a member of the Parliament’s Science & Technology and Women & Equalities Select Committees. She previously served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.
A long-term campaigner on environmental matters, Vicky was a founder member of the Conservative Environment Network. In 2018 led the “Give Up Plastic for Lent” campaign which contributed to a rapid acceleration of government initiatives to reduce single use plastics. She has chaired a number of all party groups including those for Women in Parliament, Rare Diseases, Infrastructure and the Parliamentary Forum for Information and Communications Technology.
Vicky was a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England constituency from 2009 – 2017. She chaired the Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee (IMCO) – a powerful economic committee in the European Parliament – during which time she was ranked in the top 10 most influential MEPs by Politico magazine.
As well as spearheading digital policy and single market reforms to boost trade, Vicky led negotiations that put an end to mobile roaming charges in the EU and changes to European gun laws after the Paris terrorist attacks. She also led on banking reform in the aftermath of the financial crisis, on budgetary reforms for Eurozone countries and helped establish a €80 billion Horizon fund for science and research that brought over £500 million into the East of England.
Prior to her election as a MEP, Vicky was a local councillor in South Cambridgeshire, holding portfolios for finance and community development.
Before entering politics, Vicky was a managing director of a major international bank. She was involved in raising finance for key infrastructure projects across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Vicky also chaired the committee of a local community pre-school for a number of years.
Vicky was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. She read Maths and Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge where she met her husband Hugo, a cancer specialist. They have three student-aged children.
Vicky is a former Board Member of Anglia Ruskin University and serves on the Board for Essex Cricket. She enjoys cricket, fly fishing, gardening and singing.
My work in Parliament
Vicky says: I want to keep you up-to-date with all the goings on of my working week in Westminster and Chelmsford as your MP.
You can read what I've been up to, including my 'A week in the life of an MP' series in the News section.
Please get in touch with me if I can help you through my work in Parliament." vicky.ford.mp@parliament.uk