Anna Soubry Biography

Anna Mary Soubry was born on December 7, 1956, in Lincoln, England, to David Soubry, a Nottinghamshire garage owner, and Frances Coward, an employee of Lincoln Hospital.

Soubry grew up in Dunham-on-Trent and Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, and attended the Henry Hartland Grammar School, which later became the Hartland Comprehensive. She then graduated with a law degree from the University of Birmingham (1979).

While studying law, Soubry was active in student politics and was the only Conservative member of the National Union of Students executive committee. She then joined the Social Democrat Party (SDP) in 1981 and remained with the party until it broke in 1988.

Anna Soubry pursued journalism from 1981 to 1995, working with several regional and networked TV programs and the East Midlands local news program. Soubry was a reporter and host of the Granada Television program titled This Morning.

Soubry was admitted to the bar in 1995 and became a member of the Criminal Bar Association.

Soubry represented the Conservative Party from the Gedling constituency in the 2005 general election. However, in 2006, she got a seat from the Broxtowe constituency.

Soubry was voted to the parliament in the 2010 general election. In June, she became a Conservative member of the Justice Select Committee. She urged the transport minister, Norman Baker, to grant a higher budget for the A453 road instead of spending on expanding the Nottingham Express Transit tram system.

In July 2010, Soubry came under media scrutiny when she hired a member of the Nottingham Conservative Future, who faced a police inquiry for supporting slavery. She apologized for her action and even admitted to knowing the employee's background.

In 2010, Soubry supported the privatization of Royal Mail (voted in support in January 2011) and changing of the rules concerning the ownership of the post office. She supported the provisions for upgrading the regulation of postal services.

In 2012, Anna Soubry supported the NHS reforms, consolidation of the Care Quality Commission, elimination of the Primary Care Trusts to reduce administrative costs, and the government's reorganization of the NHS. She voted against the Health and Social Care Bill and the involvement of other political parties in the introduction of NHS reforms.

Soubry was appointed as the parliamentary under-secretary of state for public health in September 2012. Shortly after the appointment, she spoke in favor of euthanasia for terminally ill people, which is a criminal offense in the U.K.

As the public health minister, Soubry strongly opposed the sale of unhealthy food at retail stores. She believed that junk food stalls were purposely placed to attract customers and hence asked for regulation of deals between retailers and food-stall owners.

In 2013, Soubry supported the Equal Marriage Bill and the legalization of same-sex marriages. She thus voted in favor of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013. She supported the proposal of the High Speed 2 East Midlands Hub station at Toton Sidings in her constituency of Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire.

In July 2013, Anna Soubry criticized Nottingham City Council leader Jon Collins for avoiding any discussion on the compensation for business and shop owners who had suffered massive losses due to the tram works. Collins, however, later met her and granted a review of the available compensation packages for the cause.

In August 2013, as the public health minister, Soubry supported the law that allowed HIV home-testing kits. In October that year, she joined the parliamentary under-secretary of state for defense and became the first elected female politician to be a minister in the MoD.

During a Westminster Hall debate, Anna Soubry discussed the impact of cigarette advertisements on the youth and shared her personal experience to prove her point. Apparently, she had started smoking just because she had found the cigarette packaging attractive. Her statements during the debate later triggered speculations when the coalition government went back to manufacturing attractive cigarette packets after Prime Minister David Cameron employed strategist Lynton Crosby, who had previously worked for tobacco companies.

Anna Soubry was highly criticized for making a nasty remark on UKIP leader Nigel Farage, on The Andrew Marr Show. She later issued an apology. However, following a debate on the BBC show Question Time in November, where Soubry and Farage faced each other over transporting Romanian and Bulgarian people to the U.K., the equation changed. Soubry accused Frage of being biased and not factually sound. People appreciated the fact that despite being a Conservative, she had preferred facts over prejudices.

Her views in favor of hydraulic fracking were against environmental concerns. Thus, several environmentalists and campaigners went against her.

In July 2014, Soubry was appointed as the minister of state for “Defence Personnel, Welfare, and Veterans.” She served as the minister of state at the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills from 2015 to July 2016.

Soubry voted for the retention of the British membership in the European Union (EU) and supported the Remain campaign of the 2016 EU membership poll. After the majority vote went to the British exit from the union, she condemned former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and his personal intention of becoming the prime minister, for which he was said to have supported Brexit.

Fellow Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who supported the Leave campaign, mentioned Soubry in one of her ''tweets,'' calling her intoxicated. She later deleted the “tweet” after Soubry accused her of being offensive.

In August 2016, Soubry supported immigration and free movement of people around the world, while speaking on the BBC Radio 4 program Today. The following month, she condemned the Leave campaign members for removing the weekly funding scheme for the NHS from the list of post-Brexit plans.

Anna Soubry stepped down as a Conservative member in February 2019, to join The Independent Group, also known as Change UK, and became its leader in June. On December 19, she announced that the party had been abolished after losing all the seats in the December election.

Anna Soubry has married twice. She has two daughters from her first husband, Haig Gordon.

She is currently in a relationship with Neil Davidson, a non-executive director of Morrisons supermarket.