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Claire Coutinho

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The Right Honourable
Claire Coutinho
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 July 2024
LeaderRishi Sunak
Kemi Badenoch
Preceded byEd Miliband
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In office
31 August 2023 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byGrant Shapps
Succeeded byEd Miliband
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing
In office
28 October 2022 – 31 August 2023
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byKelly Tolhurst
Succeeded byDavid Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People, Health and Work
In office
21 September 2022 – 28 October 2022
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Preceded byChloe Smith
Succeeded byTom Pursglove
Member of Parliament
for East Surrey
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded bySam Gyimah
Majority7,450 (15.1%)[1]
Personal details
Born
Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho

(1985-07-08) 8 July 1985 (age 39)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materExeter College, Oxford
Websitewww.clairecoutinho.com

Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho (/kəˈtiːnoʊ/;[2] born 8 July 1985) is a British Conservative Party politician and former investment banker who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey since 2019. She served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero from August 2023 to July 2024, and has been the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. She has been described as a close ally of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and as an ardent supporter of Brexit.

After graduating in mathematics and philosophy from Exeter College, Oxford, Coutinho worked as an associate at the investment bank Merrill Lynch for nearly four years, and co-founded, with food writer Mina Holland, a literary-themed events company called The Novel Diner. She also worked at the centre-right think tank Centre for Social Justice, at the industry group Housing and Finance Institute created by Natalie Elphicke, and for accounting firm KPMG as a corporate responsibility manager. She left KPMG to become a special adviser at HM Treasury; initially working for Julian Smith, she then became an aide to Sunak.

She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People from September to October 2022 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing from October 2022 to August 2023.

Early life and education

Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho was born on 8 July 1985 in London.[3][4] Her parents emigrated from India in the late 1970s and are of Goan Christian descent. Her late father Winston was an anaesthetist, and her mother Maria is a general practitioner.[5][6][7] Coutinho attended James Allen's Girls' School, a private day school in Dulwich,[8] before studying for a BA/MA in mathematics and philosophy at Exeter College, Oxford.[8][9]

Career

After graduating, Coutinho worked as an associate at the investment bank Merrill Lynch for nearly four years.[8][10] In 2012, Coutinho and food writer Mina Holland founded a literary-themed events company called The Novel Diner.[11][12][13] Two years later, she appeared on the cooking game show The Taste judged by Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson.[5] The Novel Diner was dissolved in 2015.[11]

Coutinho worked at Iain Duncan Smith's centre-right think tank Centre for Social Justice for two years;[10] she focussed on financial inclusion, education, and regeneration policy.[14] As of 2016, she was a programme director for the industry group Housing and Finance Institute created by Natalie Elphicke.[10][15] She also worked for accounting firm KPMG as a corporate responsibility manager.[16]

Coutinho left the company to become a special adviser at HM Treasury. Initially working for Julian Smith,[17] she then became an aide to Rishi Sunak.[18] Coutinho has commented that she left KPMG to join the government as a special adviser so that she could help deliver Brexit "from the inside", having supported the Leave vote in the 2016 EU membership referendum.[8]

Parliamentary career

Coutinho was selected as the Conservative candidate for East Surrey on 8 November 2019[19] after the 2019 United Kingdom general election was announced at the end of October.[20] Described in The Guardian as a "super-safe Conservative seat", East Surrey was previously held by Sam Gyimah who defected to the Liberal Democrats in September that year.[21]

She was elected as MP for East Surrey at the 2019 general election, which was held on 12 December, with 59.7% of the vote and a majority of 24,040.[22][23][24] This was almost exactly same share of the constituency vote that the Conservative Party has secured in the previous election in 2017, when Gyimah took 59.6% of votes cast.[23]

In May 2020, she was criticised by several of her local constituents for supporting Dominic Cummings, then the chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in taking a controversial 260-mile (420 km) trip from London to County Durham during a national lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.[25] In June 2020, the windows of the East Surrey Conservative Association offices were graffitied with the words "liars, cheats, traitors" in black paint.[26]

Coutinho joined the advisory board of the centre-right think tank Onward in February 2020.[27] She was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Rishi Sunak in March 2020,[28][14][29] She was a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Policy Exchange in 2021.[30] Coutinho resigned from her position as PPS on 6 July 2022 in protest at Prime Minister Johnson's leadership following the Chris Pincher scandal,[31] and endorsed Sunak in the following Conservative Party leadership election.[32]

Coutinho served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People between September and October 2022 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing between October 2022 and August 2023.[33][34] The government signed a £19.5 million contract with consultancy Newton Europe in June 2022 to design and develop its Delivering Better Value (DBV) programme, which aimed to reduce budget deficits in the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities with a target of at least 20% cut in new education provision. In May 2023, Coutinho stated to the Education Select Committee that there were no targets.[35]

In August 2023, Coutinho wrote to social landlords, housing associations and developers calling on them to let childminders work from rented properties. She commented that restrictive clauses in their contracts may stop them working from their homes.[36]

At the 2024 general election, Coutinho was re-elected to Parliament as MP for East Surrey with a decreased vote share of 35.6% and a decreased majority of 7,450.[37] The Conservative Party lost the election,[38] and on 8 July 2024, she was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero in Sunak's shadow cabinet.[39]

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

See also: Sunak ministry
A woman at a meeting table
Coutinho at a Cabinet meeting in November 2023

On 31 August 2023, Coutinho was appointed as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, replacing Grant Shapps; she was the first of the MPs elected in 2019 to join the Cabinet, and at 38 was the youngest member.[11] In the Daily Telegraph, Daniel Martin and Ben Riley-Smith commented that Coutinho's appointment came at a time when Sunak's government was signalling "a subtle change of policy from the Government away from green causes".[40] They reported that a "senior government source" had stated that both Sunak and Coutinho were committed to planning for net zero, but would be looking to prevent people from facing large financial costs for the implementation of net zero plans.[40] The reporters noted that although she had previously supported both the preservation of green belts and the expansion of wild rural spaces, she had also shown sympathy for owners of oil boilers, and speculated that she might overturn the policies of banning new oil boilers from 2026 and of banning new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.[40] Heather Stewart of The Guardian remarked that while Coutinho appeared to show a genuine interest in environmental issues, as evidenced by her membership of the Conservative Environment Network before becoming a minister, Sunak's position seemed to be to seek to gain votes by backtracking on the party's net zero commitments.[41]

In a speech at the 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Coutinho claimed that the Labour Party supported the introduction of a meat tax. Factchecking charity Full Fact found no evidence of this. When pressed by Sky News journalist Sophy Ridge on her comments, she said that it was only a light-hearted moment in her speech and provided no evidence for her assertion.[42]

In April 2024, Coutinho replied to criticism from Chris Stark, the outgoing Head of the Climate Change Committee that provides independent advice to ministers, that Sunak's government had hampered progress on climate change.[43] Coutinho countered that the UK was the first major economy to reduce its emissions by half since 1990, and that she had made changes to the tax system to encourage investment in the energy sector.[43] She added that the government would be "sensible and pragmatic" in its plans for net zero, and avoid "heap[ing] costs on families".[43]

Opposition and Shadow Cabinet

In the 2024 general election, despite large Conservative losses across the country, Coutinho retained her seat with a reduced majority of 7,450.[44] In Sunak's Shadow Cabinet she retained her energy brief as the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. Upon Kemi Badenoch's victory in the Conservative leadership contest in November, Coutinho was retained as Shadow Energy Secretary and was given additional responsibilities as the Shadow Minister for Equalities.[45]

Public image

Coutinho has been characterised as an ardent Brexit supporter,[46][6][41] and as a factional ally of Sunak.[41][6] Stewart wrote that "Like Sunak ... Coutinho has spoken with pride about her Indian background."[41] Rachel Cunliffe of New Statesman wrote that descriptions of Coutinho from Conservative Members of Parliament included that she was competent, "work-driven", "level-headed" and "forensic-minded".[6] Discussing Coutinho's reputation amongst her colleagues, Cunliffe remarked that "The common narrative is that Coutinho is a dedicated grafter who got lucky, backed the right person at the right time, and has been rewarded by a troubled prime minister desperately trying to surround himself with people he can trust."[6]

Honours

References

  1. ^ "Results for a UK general election on 4 July 2024: England - by majority". UK Parliament. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Visit to Bay Pond in East Surrey". YouTube. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Members Sworn". UK Parliament. 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  4. ^ 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. 350. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  5. ^ a b Pandit, Shiladitya (15 December 2019). "After UK polls, Pune family gets its first MP from East Surrey". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 1 September 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e Cuniffe, Rachel (20 November 2023). "The quiet ruthlessness of Claire Coutinho". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on 17 January 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  7. ^ "Winston Basil Aquino Coutinho". General Medical Council. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". Politics Home. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
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  11. ^ a b c Zeffman, Henry; Rannard, Georgina; Whannel, Kate (31 August 2023). "Claire Coutinho: Who is the new energy secretary?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  12. ^ Audley, Alice (20 March 2013). "The Novel Diner does The Bell Jar". The Upcoming. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
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  27. ^ Blanchard, Jack (17 February 2020). "Politico London Playbook: Baptism of fire — A touch of Frost — Super-forecasters". Politico Europe. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
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  29. ^ Brown, Faye (31 August 2023). "Who is Claire Coutinho? Rising star of Tory party becomes energy secretary". Sky News.
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  35. ^ Jayanetti, Chaminda (10 September 2023). "Revealed: covert deal to cut help for pupils in England with special needs". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  36. ^ Clarence-Smith, Louisa (21 August 2023). "Minister calls on landlords to let tenants use homes to run childminding businesses". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 31 August 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
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  40. ^ a b c Martin, Daniel; Riley-Smith, Ben (1 September 2023). "Could Sunak ally Coutinho rip up the net zero playbook?". The Daily Telegraph. p. 5.
  41. ^ a b c d Stewart, Heather (1 September 2023). "Claire Coutinho: Sunak loyalist will walk a fine green line as energy secretary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2 September 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  42. ^ Asl, Nasim (3 October 2023). "No evidence for energy secretary's claim that Labour is 'relaxed' about taxing meat". Full Fact. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  43. ^ a b c Whannel, Kate (21 April 2024). "Energy secretary Claire Coutinho defends government's climate record". BBC News.
  44. ^ Graves, Kieran (5 July 2024). "East Surrey General Election result 2024 in full as Conservatives hold on". SurreyLive. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  45. ^ "Philp appointed shadow home secretary by Badenoch". BBC News. 5 November 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  46. ^ "Claire Coutinho, new UK energy secretary, has distinct shades of green". Politico. 31 August 2023. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Claire Coutinho.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for East Surrey
2019–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health
2022–2022 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing
2022–2023 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
2023–2024 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero
2024–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from "https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Claire_Coutinho"