Virginia Crosbie

Crosbie was born in Maldon, Essex, to an English mother and Welsh father,[2] and grew up in the village of Tiptree, where her mother worked at the Tiptree Jam Factory.[3] She attended Colchester County High School.[3] As a teenager, she worked as a dolphin trainer at the Woburn Safari Park for Terry Nutkins's BBC children's television series Animal Magic.[3][4] She studied microbiology at Queen Mary University of London before completing a diploma in management studies at the University of Westminster.[5] After graduating, Crosbie worked for Glaxo Wellcome before becoming a pharmaceutical analyst at the bank UBS.[3][6] She became a director at UBS and later at HSBC. She then retrained, and became a part-time mathematics teacher.[4][6]

She is a former chair of the charity Save the Baby which is based at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. Crosbie decided to join the organisation after experiencing a miscarriage.[7] She was a director of Women2Win.[8]

Crosbie with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023

Crosbie contested the Rhondda constituency as the Conservative candidate in the 2017 general election. She finished third behind the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru candidates.[9] She then became the deputy chair of the Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservatives Association, and the director of Women2Win, an organisation which campaigns for more female Conservative parliamentarians.[10][11] She also worked as a senior parliamentary researcher for Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.[5][6]

She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Ynys Môn on 14 November 2019 (the day when nominations closed).[12] Crosbie was chosen after the former Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies, the previously selected candidate, withdrew the day before due to opposition by the local association, and other Welsh Conservatives.[13] She was elected as MP for Ynys Môn at the 2019 general election with a majority of 1,968 (5.4%).[14] The constituency had been represented by a Labour Party MP since the 2001 general election.[15] She is the first Conservative MP to represent this three-way marginal seat since 1987.[16]

In January 2020, Crosbie tabled an early day motion about the protection of the Welsh language.[17] From February 2020 to August 2021, she was the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Department of Health and Social Care.[18][19] Crosbie has been a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee since 2020 and sat on the Women and Equalities Committee between March and September 2020.[20][21] In July 2020, Crosbie apologised for errors on her Welsh language website, stating that the machine translation was "not 100% perfect". She said she was learning the Welsh language and working on a fully bilingual website.[22]

In 2020 she successfully campaigned to give Ynys Môn protected status in the UK Boundary Changes review. An amendment put forward by Maria Miller MP brought Anglesey in line with other UK islands including the Isle of Wight and Orkney ensuring that it would not become a joint constituency with part of mainland Wales.[23]

In January 2021, Crosbie began a campaign to get 100 people in Anglesey trained in mental health first aid.[24] She runs a long term campaign to find Anglesey's Hidden Heroes which she launched in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.[25] She has campaigned locally for improved broadband connectivity,[26] and better availability of defibrillators.[27]

In 2020, Crosbie started the Anglesey Freeport Bidding Consortium[28] following the UK Government's announcement that at least one freeport would be established in Wales. She sponsored Anglesey County Council's bids for the Community Renewal Fund[29] and Levelling Up Fund.[30]

In 2022 £2.7m was granted to Anglesey from the Community Renewal Fund for projects including promotion of the Welsh language.[31]

In January 2023 Anglesey County Council was granted £17.3m from the Levelling Up fund for regeneration of the port town of Holyhead.[32]

In March 2023 the UK Government and Welsh Government jointly announced that Anglesey was being given Freeport status.[33] The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak MP, visited Ynys Môn and met with Crosbie to make the Anglesey Freeport announcement.[34]

Since beginning her career as an MP, Crosbie has made the case for building new nuclear power stations in the UK. She is the co-chair with fellow Conservative MP Trudy Harrison of the Nuclear Delivery Group which was formed in December 2020.[35] She has been vocal in her support of setting up a new nuclear plant on the site of Wylfa on Anglesey.[36] In September 2023 the Prime Minister hinted that Wylfa could be a preferred nuclear site.[37]

Crosbie sits on the APPG for Nuclear Energy and set up and chairs the APPG for Small Modular Reactors. She was a member of both the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill Committee and the ARIA Bill Committee.

From September 2021 to July 2022, she was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales.[38] Crosbie resigned as PPS in July 2022 in protest against the leadership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.[39] She endorsed Sajid Javid in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[40]

In January 2023, Crosbie said that she wears a stab vest when meeting constituents. She commented that she took this precaution following the murder of Conservative MP Sir David Amess in 2021.[41] Crosbie had previously reported around 30 threats, abusive emails and social media posts to the police since being elected as an MP which included violent threats.[42][43]

Crosbie apologised in June 2023 for attending an event briefly in Parliament while COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were in place on 8 December 2020 which she attributed to a "momentary error of judgment".[44]

In July 2023 Crosbie was again made PPS to the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales.

In 2023 a Private Member's Bill sponsored by Crosbie - the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Bill - received royal assent from King Charles III giving hospitality workers 100% of the tips they have earned.[45]

Crosbie has lobbied for support for farmers on Anglesey. She led a ten minute rule bill to update the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953.[46] She sat on the Agriculture Bill Committee and Environmental Bill Committee.[47] In 2023 she brought the DEFRA Farming Minister, Mark Spencer MP, to visit the Anglesey Agricultural Show. She was part of the campaign to encourage supermarkets to tag foods for "Buy British".[48]

In 2023 following her support for a local campaign for a solution to the low platform at Ty Croes railway station, the . Department for Transport Rail Minister, Huw Merriman MP, visited and announced £1m funding for a Harrington Hump at the station.[49]

Crosbie has also led Parliamentary debates on communities served by the West Coast Mainline franchise,[50] the closure of the Menai Suspension Bridge[51] and Freeports in Wales.[52] She subsequently expressed her disappointment that Avanti West Coast was reawarded the West Coast Mainline contract[53] and that the Menai Bridge repairs would not be complete until 2026.[54] Crosbie has also campaigned for better digital connectivity across Anglesey.[55]

In May 2023 she gave away a mile of Union Flag bunting to communities across Ynys Môn to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III[56]

She has a stated aim to bring jobs and investment to Ynys Môn and welcomed a £175m investment at RAF Valley [57]and a new HMRC Inland Border Facility in Holyhead.[58]

In 2023, following a question asked by Crosbie in Business Questions, the Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt MP, declared the Welsh Government's "blanket" 20mph speed limit "absolutely insane".[59]

She has sat on the Seafarers Wages Bill, British Sign Language Bill, Shark Fin Bill, Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, Health and Care Bill and the Women and Equalities Committee.[60]

Crosbie is married and has three children.[3][4] Her brother Simon died of suicide in 2018 at the age of 52.[61]

After her election in December 2019, she committed to learning the Welsh language and passed her entry level speaking examination in July 2021.[62]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virginia Crosbie.

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou