Karl McCartney

Karl Ian McCartney (born 25 October 1968, Birkenhead) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Lincoln, and was first elected in 2010.^[1][4]

Biography

McCartney attended Birkenhead School from 1980–1986 and went on to study Geography at St David's University College in Lampeter (now University of Wales, Lampeter) from 1988. At Lampeter he was student union president from 1991–1992 and captained the Welsh Universities First XI football team from 1990–1991.^[2][4]

After completing university in 1992 McCartney worked in the City of London. He has been a school governor since 1995. In 1999 he completed an MBA from Kingston Business School and became a magistrate.^[2]

Political career

McCartney was elected to parliament as MP for Lincoln in the May 2010 general elections, ousting Gillian Merron.^[4][5] He made his maiden speech on 12 July during the debate on Corporation Tax.^[6]

McCartney is opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage arguing in a 2012 reply to a constituent's letter on the matter that he felt it would next lead to "multi-partnership marriages... [and] a reduction in the age of permitted marriage".^[7][8][9]

In April 2012 McCartney said that publication of the results of the Department for Education's investigation into allegations of misuse of funds at Lincoln's Priory Federation of Academies Trust should be delayed.^[10]

In 2012 he was elected by Conservative MP's colleagues to the Executive of the influential 1922 Committee and the Transport Select Committee and then after the 2015 General Election, he was re-elected to the same positions.

As a prominent Leave Campaigner he was again elected by his colleagues as a member of the Exiting the European Select Committee (known colloquially as the ‘Brexit Committee’) and led the successful ^[11] across Greater Lincolnshire during the EU Referendum.

He is also a leading advocate ^[12][13][14] in Parliament for tackling the educational underperformance for boys/gender education gap and also for ensuring there are curbs on false whiplash car injury claims.^[15] There is now a current Government consultation ^[16] on the latter.

Road & rail transport

By late November 2014 work had commenced on the pedestrian footbridge over the level crossing on High Street with a further footbridge over the railway due to be constructed in 2015 following years of campaigning by McCartney and Lincoln City Council to Network Rail. It was announced in the same month that InterCity Railways, the new operator of the East Coast Rail Franchise, would increase the number of direct trains to London from Lincoln to six per day during their operating timeframe.

On Thursday 4 December McCartney was able to confirm that the £49.5m of funding for the Eastern Bypass was secure and that the Government would support in principle a future bid for the bypass to be a dual carriageway.^[17] This funding comes nearly 5 years after the original plan for a dual carriageway bypass was cancelled by the Conservative led coalition for being too costly. As of April 2015 work has not commenced and it is unclear when or if it will as it does not feature in the Coalition's Road Investment Strategy. McCartney claimed however to have received verbal assurances from Government Ministers that the funding was secure and the project would go ahead.

Expenses

On 28 February 2013 McCartney was obliged to apologise to IPSA for the content of notes sent by him to staff and described by Chief Executive, Andrew McDonald as 'abusive' 'offensive' and 'condescending'. "I apologise unreservedly to IPSA for my comments which were inappropriate, and which I regret having made. I accept that such comments have given cause for offence. You will not see me making similar remarks in the future in respect of IPSA, which has a difficult and important job to do."^[18] However the following month he claimed that IPSA's incompetence had forced MPs from all parties to borrow money and that he himself had had to ask his parents for financial assistance.^[19] McCartney also said that he had been told by a "senior IPSA official" that the organisation intended to "damage MPs as much as possible," a claim that IPSA said was "wild ..simply untrue."^[19]

Voting record and speeches

McCartney spoke in 11 debates in 2014 -"well below average amongst MPs" but took part in an above average 79% of votes.^[20]

Views on Women in Politics and 'Twitter' incident.

McCartney's attitude to women was criticised after a councillor sent him a tweet comparing the Election 2015 all female Labour party shortlist in his constituency to women modelling underwear.^[21] After a hostile response, the councillor, a Conservative chairman in Margaret Thatcher's home town of Grantham deleted the remark and apologised. Selected Labour party candidate Lucy Rigby, noting that only 1 in 5 Tory MPs were women, retweeted ‘Here’s Karl McCartney MP & Tory Cllr discussing my selection to stand as a MP. & ppl q why aren’t more women in politics.’ McCartney replied that those with a sense of humour would appreciate the remark though he said the comment was addressed to another Twitter user joining the debate.^[21]
In a separate incident, McCartney complained to Twitter about its "security changes" after his favourited pictures were observed to contain pornographic bondage images.^[22][23]

References

External links

• Lincoln Conservatives
• Karl McCartney on Twitter