EVESHAM’S MP was among the winners in the Government reshuffle which saw county MP Sajid Javid resign as Chancellor in a row over Number 10’s involvement in the fiercely independent Treasury.
Nigel Huddleston was appointed as a minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) with responsibility for tourism and heritage, gambling and lotteries and sport, including the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.
The Mid Worcestershire MP was handed the role in the aftermath of Mr Javid’s resignation when he refused to dismiss his own advisers in favour of a joint team of staff from both Number 11 and Number 10 to deliver the Government’s spending plans.
Mr Huddleston’s promotion will see him continues his assocation with the department which began when he was first elected in 2015 and also in his work before entering Parliament.
From 2015 to 2017 he sat on the DCMS Select Committee, a cross-party committee of MPs whose job it is to hold the department to account and conduct hearings into important and urgent matters of interest.
While on the committee he investigated issues such as the renewal of the BBC’s Charter, sports sponsorship, disability access to stadia, media regulation, football governance, secondary ticketing sites, museums and tourism, drug taking in sport, homophobia in sport, and broadband rollout.
Following the 2017 General Election he left the select committee when he was appointed to the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary to two DCMS Secretaries of State; first Matt Hancock and then Jeremy Wright and most recently he held a position in the whip’s office.
Prior to becoming an MP, Mr Huddleston worked for Google as the Industry Head for Travel and before that he worked as a consultant at Deloitte in the UK and the US covering the travel and tourism, technology, media and telecommunications.
His work over more than 15 years based mainly in London and Los Angeles involved everything from developing business plans for hotels and theme parks to valuing sports rights for TV distribution.
“This is a department that oversees the sectors I have worked in all my professional life before entering Parliament and on what I have focused on since entering Parliament in 2015,” he said.
“Moreover it oversees the industries and activities many of my constituents care passionately about whether it be improving broadband and mobile services to help them run their businesses or contact loved ones, or how they spend their leisure time engaged in sporting activities or travelling.
“I look forward to enhancing and championing these industries and the people who work in them and participate in them not only in my constituency, but right across the country.” he added.
