Patrick Spencer is the Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 election, Spencer won 15,144 votes, representing 32.6% of the vote. The Labour candidate, Kevin Craig, received 10,854 votes (23.4%), while the Reform UK candidate, Tony Gould, secured 8,806 votes (19.0%). Spencer was duly elected with a majority of 4,290.

The Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency was newly created ahead of the 2024 election, formed primarily from the former Central Suffolk seat. The predecessor seat had been held by the Conservative Party since 1997 – although the incumbent MP in 2024, Dan Poulter, defected to Labour shortly before the election.

Spencer was one of 26 new Conservative MPs that entered parliament following the 2024 general election.

Political Career

Spencer currently serves as shadow parliamentary under secretary of state for education and an opposition whip. He was appointed to these roles as part of the August/September 2026 shadow ministerial reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Spencer served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the shadow education team on the Conservative frontbench constructed by Kemi Badenoch (2024-2025).

Spencer had the Conservative whip suspended in May 2025 after he was charged with two counts of sexual assault that allegedly took place at London’s Groucho Club in August 2023.

A Conservative party spokesperson stated: “Patrick Spencer MP has been suspended from the Conservative Party, and the whip withdrawn, with immediate effect.

“The Conservative Party cannot comment further on an ongoing legal case.”

At the time, Spencer’s lawyers said he “categorically denies the charges”.

In July 2026, Spencer was found not guilty of sexual assault. He told reporters that he had “always maintained my innocence” and the verdict drew “a very long and challenging period in my life to a close”.

Spencer had the Conservative whip restored after the not guilty verdict was delivered.

Spencer has sat as a member of the House of Commons education committee (2024-2025).

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

In it, he said: “In a previous life, before entering this place, I worked under my right honourable friend the member for Chingford and Woodford Green [Sir Iain Duncan Smith] at the Centre for Social Justice, and then as an adviser in the Department for Education.

“In that time, I realised that the Conservative party and conservatism have a proud story to tell on the critical issue of helping those who need help – on offering the most vulnerable in our society not just a handout but a leg up, and on standing up for what is just and fair in society. More than anything, they are about giving people the opportunity to fulfil their potential.”

He added: “Time and again on the doorstep during the election, and across dining tables for many years, I have heard from people – rich and poor, young and old, left and right – that they have lost faith in politicians doing the right thing.”

“As we embark on this debate and others in this place, let us keep that in mind.”

Spencer previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for West Ham in the 2017 general election.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Tory leadership 2024: Spencer supported Tom Tugendhat’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election. Tugendhat, the then-shadow security minister, was eliminated in the third parliamentary ballot on 8 October 2024 after receiving 20 votes.

Political tradition

Mass deportation: In May 2025, Spencer signed an early day motion (EDM) concerning the mass deportation of illegal migrants. The motion, tabled by the independent MP Rupert Lowe, expressed “grave concern at the continued presence of over one million illegal migrants in the United Kingdom”.

The EDM urged the government to “implement a comprehensive national strategy to identify, detain, and deport all individuals found to be residing in the United Kingdom illegally, and to ensure that such policies are backed by the necessary legislative, diplomatic, logistical and financial resources to restore confidence in the rule of law and the security of our borders.”

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Spencer 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

Spencer voted in favour of 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): Spencer 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

Spencer was born on 8 May 1988.

Spencer studied political science and government at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2010. He later obtained a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University in Washington DC in 2016.

Before entering frontline politics, Spencer held roles spanning finance and policy work. He was head of work and welfare policy at the Centre for Social Justice from 2016 to 2020.

From 2020 to 2023, he worked as a senior adviser at the Department for Education.

Personal Life

Spencer is married. His family moved to Suffolk from Essex in the 1980s.

Trivia

Spencer’s father is the billionaire businessman, Conservative peer and longstanding party donor Lord Spencer of Alresford.