Victoria Prentis

Prentis was born Victoria Boswell, in Banbury, and grew up on the family farm in nearby Aynho. She has two sisters. She was educated at Royal Holloway, University of London and Downing College, Cambridge, gaining degrees in English and Law respectively. She is the daughter of Lord Boswell of Aynho, who was MP for Daventry from 1987 to 2010.^[7]

Prentis qualified as a barrister in 1995. She joined the Civil Service in 1997, leaving in November 2014. Her last job for the government was co-leading (in a jobshare) the "Justice and Security team" at the Treasury Solicitor's Department.^[8]

In November 2014, Prentis was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Banbury constituency at the 2015 general election. She retained the safe seat for the Conservatives (held by them since 1922). In Parliament she sat on the Justice Select Committee and the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments. Prentis is an opponent of High Speed 2, believing it will affect her constituency.^[9] She rebelled against the Conservative government when the HS2 Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons in March 2016.^[10]

Prentis was a founding supporter of Conservatives for Reform in Europe, a group which campaigned in support of the UK's membership of a reformed European Union. Accordingly, she declared that she would vote remain in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.^[11][12]

Prentis supported Theresa May's candidacy during the 2016 Conservative leadership contest.^[13] She was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to junior ministers in the Department for Transport in July 2016.

She was re-elected as the MP for Banbury in the 2017 general election.^[14]

In May 2019, she endorsed candidate Rory Stewart for the leadership of the Conservative Party.^[15]

Prentis stated that she voted to remain in the European Union but had since given her support to Boris Johnson's deal.^[16]

In February 2020, Prentis joined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Farming, Fisheries and Food.

In January 2021, Prentis said during an interview that her jaw did not drop when she read the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement which includes farming, fisheries and food because she was "very busy organising the local nativity trail".^[17] She voted in favour of the agreement in-line with government policy.

In March 2022, Prentis was the first British MP to take a Ukrainian refugee in her house amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[18]

On 7 September, Prentis was appointed Minister of State for Work and Welfare at the Department for Work and Pensions by Prime Minister Liz Truss in the Truss Ministry.^[3]

Victoria Prentis was defeated by Labour candidate Sean Woodcock at the 2024 general election, one of many Conservative Cabinet ministers to lose their seat. Banbury had been consistently represented by a Conservative MP from 1922 until 2024.

Prentis is married to Sebastian Prentis, an Insolvency and Companies Court Judge, whom she met when they were both students at the University of Cambridge. The couple have two daughters and live in Somerton, Oxfordshire.^[27][28] During debates about the assisted dying bill, she mentions she got diagnosed with cancer and was getting chemotherapy.