Joy Morrissey is the Conservative MP for Beaconsfield, having first been elected to parliament at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Morrissey won 18,494 votes, representing 38.8% of the vote. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Anna Crabtree, received 13,039 votes (27.3%), while the Labour candidate, Matthew Patterson, secured 7,216 votes (15.1%). Morrissey was duly elected with a majority of 5,455 votes.

The Beaconsfield constituency is located in Buckinghamshire and includes towns such as Beaconsfield and Marlow. It is an affluent area and considered a safe Conservative seat. Morrissey defeated the incumbent MP, Dominic Grieve, who stood as an independent after losing the Conservative whip over Brexit.

Political Career

Morrissey currently serves as shadow secretary of state for women and equalities. Morrissey was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Morrissey served as deputy chief whip on the Conservative frontbench appointed by Kemi Badenoch from November 2024 to August 2026.

Morrissey was a shadow energy security and net zero minister and an opposition whip from July 2024 to November 2024 on the interim/caretaker shadow frontbench constructed by Rishi Sunak after the general election of that year.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw the Conservatives ejected from government, Morrissey served as a government whip, holding the positions of lord commissioner of the Treasury (November 2023 – July 2024) and assistant government whip (July 2022 – November 2023).

Before becoming a whip, she was parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the prime minister, Boris Johnson from February to July 2022. She served as PPS to the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, Dominic Raab from October 2020 to February 2022 and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from April to October 2020. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder.

In June 2022, Morrissey publicly declared their loyalty to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of a Conservative “no-confidence” in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

At the time, Morrissey described the no-confidence vote as “a self-indulgent distraction the only effect of which will be to embolden a pitiful opposition”.

In June 2023, Morrissey was one of seven Conservative MPs who voted against the House of Commons privileges committee report which found that Johnson had knowingly misled parliament over the “Partygate” scandal. The committee’s unanimous report, approved by 354 votes to seven, concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled the house on multiple occasions and recommended a 90-day suspension – had he not already resigned as an MP after seeing a draft of the findings. Johnson had previously branded the committee a “kangaroo court” and accused its members of a “political hitjob”.

Morrissey has sat as a member of the House of Commons work and pensions select committee (2025-2026), procedure committee (2024-2025), the modernisation committee (2024-2025), and the committee of selection (2023-2025).

Morrissey has been listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for ageing and older people and British Sikhs.

Morrissey delivered her maiden speech on 24 February 2020 during a debate on policing.

In it, she stated: “Beaconsfield has been home to influential thinkers, artists and entrepreneurs of the day, from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania – I thought we would do an American theme today; why not? – whose estate sits within picturesque Stoke Poges; to Barry Gibb, lead singer of the Bee Gees; to Pinewood Studios, a global leader in the creative arts.”

She added: “I should mention that Beaconsfield has always voted to elect a Conservative Member of Parliament. Not only are the people of Beaconsfield incredibly sound in their voting choices, but some of the greatest Conservative minds have lived there, from Edmund Burke to Benjamin Disraeli.

“It is because of the way that a one nation Conservative party is constantly embracing the future that an immigrant working mum with a foreign, strange accent has now been given the glorious opportunity of representing the best constituency in the country.”

Before entering parliament, Morrissey served as a Conservative councillor for Hanger Hill ward on Ealing London Borough Council from 2014 until April 2020.

Morrissey stood as the Conservative candidate in Ealing Central and Acton in the 2017 general election, placing second. She was also a candidate for the London Assembly in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Conservative candidacy for mayor of London in 2018.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Morrissey supported Liz Truss’ candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson, following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Truss, the then-foreign secretary, campaigned on a platform of sweeping tax cuts. After finishing second in the final parliamentary ballot with 113 votes, she won the subsequent vote of the party membership with 81,326 votes (57.4%) and was appointed prime minister on 6 September.

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Morrissey supported Johnson’s explored candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her “mini-budget”.

Johnson, who had resigned as prime minister only months earlier, initially sought a return to office and claimed to have secured the 100 nominations required to proceed. However, he announced his withdrawal on 23 October, stating that “you can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.” Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, later confirmed that Johnson had indeed secured the 100 MPs necessary to force a ballot of the Conservative membership – which he could well have won.

Morrissey reportedly helped canvass support for Johnson before he dropped out of the race.

Factional identity and party tradition

Common sense group: In the 2019-2024 parliament, Morrissey was associated with the Common Sense Group (CSG) of socially conservative MPs. The CSG’s principal focus was to combat what it described as “woke” ideology. In 2021, it published a manifesto, Common Sense: Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age, which took aim at the Equality Act 2010, the supreme court, British broadcasters and environmentalist direct action group Extinction Rebellion. Veteran Conservative MP Sir John Hayes served as the group’s chair.

In a 2020 open letter published in the Daily Telegraph, MPs of the Common Sense Group said the faction had formed to “speak for the silent majority of voters tired of being patronised by elitist bourgeois liberals whenever issues such as immigration or law and order are raised.”

The Free Market Forum: Morrissey has been listed as a supporter of the Free Market Forum (FMF) of Conservative MPs and peers. The group, co-chaired by Dehenna Davison and Greg Smith in the 2019-2024 parliament, set out to “encourage free market thinking, winning over the unpersuaded and providing intellectual firepower and a public platform to proponents of classical liberalism.” Founded in 2021, the forum, associated with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), was seen as aligned with the economic policies of the Liz Truss government.

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Morrissey voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the ten-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Morrissey voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Morrissey voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born Joyce Rebekah Inboden in Indiana, US, on 30 January 1981, she grew up in Ohio and attended Worthington Christian high school.

She moved to the UK in 2008 to study at the London School of Economics (LSE), gaining a master’s degree specialising in European social policy. She subsequently became a British citizen and holds dual UK/US nationality.

Prior to her election to parliament, she worked for the centre for social justice think tank and as a parliamentary staffer.

In the late 2000s, under the name Joy Boden, she had a brief acting career, including appearing in a TV movie directed by her now-husband.

Before moving to the UK, she undertook humanitarian work in Albania, Kosovo, China, and India.

Personal Life

Morrissey is married to William Morrissey. They have one child.

Trivia

Morrissey was born and raised in the USA, becoming a dual UK/US national after moving to the UK in 2008.

Before her political career, Morrissey had a brief career as an actress under the name Joy Boden. She appeared alongside Marisa Tomei in a TV movie titled The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud