Lincoln Jopp is the Conservative Party MP for Spelthorne, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Jopp received 14,038 votes (30.4%). The Labour candidate, Claire Tighe, received 12,448 votes (27.0%), while the Liberal Democrat candidate, Harry Boparai, secured 8,710 votes (18.9%). Jopp was duly elected with a majority of 1,590 votes.

The Spelthorne constituency is located in Surrey, South East England. It has been represented continuously by Conservative MPs since 1950.

Jopp’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Spelthorne was Kwasi Kwarteng of the Conservative Party. Kwarteng, who served as chancellor under Liz Truss, stood down at the 2024 general election, having represented the seat since 2010.

Political Career

Jopp currently serves as shadow parliamentary under secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs and a senior opposition whip. Jopp was appointed to these roles as part of the August/September 2026 shadow ministerial reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Additionally, Jopp is a member of the House of Commons defence select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for monitoring the expenditure, administration and policy of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its associated public bodies. The committee’s remit includes oversight of the British Armed Forces.

Jopp served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the shadow foreign, commonwealth and development office team from November 2024 to September 2026.

Since his election, Jopp has challenged the prime minister in the House of Commons on several occasions, even emerging as a semi-regular contributor to prime minister’s questions (PMQs).

Jopp has questioned the prime minister on subjects including the “national capitulation of the government over the sovereignty of the Chagos islands” and the nature of Sue Gray’s appointment to the purportedly “invented job” of special envoy to the nations and regions.

In June 2025, Jopp raised “Mrs Thatcher’s all-too-pertinent observation that the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”.

Referring to the “magnificent success of the England cricket team”, Jopp advised the prime minister in July 2025 that the government needed “more pace and less spin”.

Keir Starmer responded: “The honourable gentleman needs a break”.

In November 2025, Jopp told the House: “I particularly remember being in West Africa in 1997, where I somehow managed to survive a bloody and violent attempted coup – if the prime minister wants any ideas on how to do that, he only has to ask.”

Jopp is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for better road and rearmament.

Jopp delivered his maiden speech on 25 July 2024 during a debate on the code of conduct and modernisation committee.

In it, he said: “The world is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the cold war. We are having a defence review, which will take time; but time may be running out, and the right course of action – increasing defence expenditure – is all too clear now, let alone in 12 months’ time when the review reports.

“I gently suggest to all members of this House that to govern may be to choose, but it is also to act, and that the answer to autocracy is rarely more bureaucracy.”

Political views

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Jopp voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the 10-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

Jopp 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): Jopp 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 Lincoln Peter Munro Jopp on 2 February 1968 in Barnes, London, he attended St Paul’s School before studying theology and philosophy at the University of Stirling.

Jopp joined the British Army in 1990. His service included deployments to Northern Ireland, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. He was awarded the Military Cross for service in Sierra Leone in 1997.

Jopp commanded the Scots Guards in Afghanistan during the summer of 2010.

In February 2025, Jopp told the commons that he had “been to war three times” (the First Gulf War, the Second Gulf War/Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan).

Jopp was military head of the strategy unit in the Ministry of Defence from 2011 to 2012.

Upon leaving the army, Jopp worked in the private sector, including roles in venture capital and private equity.

Personal Life

Jopp is married to Caroline Jopp, a co-founder of the Military Wives Choirs organisation. They have three children.

His stepfather is the Conservative peer Lord Horam. A former minister, Horam was first elected as a Labour MP before joining the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and later the Conservatives.

Trivia

Jopp provided five and a half hours of live commentary for the BBC’s coverage of King Charles III’s Coronation in 2023.