Eastleigh MP Mims Davies appointed Charities Minister

The Prime Minister has appointed Mims Davies as minister for sport and civil society, following Tracey Crouch’s resignation last week.

Davies has been the Conservative MP for Eastleigh since 2015. She was previously appointed as an assistant government whip in January 2018, and was subsequently named Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales in July. She has shown an interest in both sport and civil society, as well as equalities issues.

See Mims Davies’ voting record

In 2017 she ran the London Marathon and raised over £1,000 for Cardiac Risk in the Young. Davies is also a trustee of a small military charity called Building Heroes. The charity was set up in 2016 to provide education, support and training to veterans. It is registered as a charitable incorporated organisation, a relatively new legal form, and last year had an income of around £280,000.

Davies tweeted last night that she “can’t wait to get started”.

She was congratulated on her new role by her predecessor Crouch, who tweeted: “congratulations Mims Davies. You’ll be brilliant and I know the fantastic team at DCMS will look after you well.” Charity leaders have also tweeted their congratulations and begun raising issues with her.

Before entering politics Davies worked as a local radio presenter and producer and held communications roles with the police and AA. She was a Conservative councillor between 2011 and 2015 and has a degree in politics and international relations from Swansea University.

She sits on the House of Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion, and was previously a member of the women and equalities committee. Last month she resigned from a committee chaired by Commons speaker John Bercow over concerns about his ability to tackle bullying and sexual harassment problems in Parliament.
She campaigned to leave the EU during the referendum in 2016.

[With thanks to the Civil Society website for this text]