Paul Holmes is the Conservative MP for Hamble Valley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2019 general election. He previously represented the Eastleigh constituency from 2019 to 2024.

In the 2024 general election, Holmes won 19,671 votes, representing 36.4% of the vote. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Prad Bains, received 14,869 votes (27.5%), while the Labour candidate, Devina Paul, secured 8,753 votes (16.2%). Holmes was duly elected with a majority of 4,802 votes.

The Hamble Valley constituency was newly created for the 2024 election, primarily from the former Eastleigh seat in Hampshire. It includes towns such as Hamble-le-Rice, Hedge End, and Whiteley. The predecessor Eastleigh seat was held by the Liberal Democrats for over twenty years until 2015.

Holmes’ immediate predecessor as the MP for Eastleigh was Mims Davies, who represented the seat from 2015 to 2019. She is now the MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield and also serves on the Conservative frontbench. The current MP for the Eastleigh seat (following boundary changes brought in for the 2024 election) is Liz Jarvis of the Liberal Democrats.

Political Career

Holmes currently serves as opposition deputy chief whip. He was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow ministerial reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Holmes served as shadow parliamentary under-secretary of state for housing, communities and local government from November 2024 to September 2026. He was made an opposition whip in July 2024 as part of the interim/caretaker frontbench created after the 2024 general election. Badenoch initially retained Holmes in this post upon becoming leader. (Holmes briefly left his post as opposition whip in October 2024 to support James Cleverly’s candidacy in the 2024 Tory leadership election).

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw the Conservatives ejected from government, Holmes served as assistant government whip from April 2024 until the July 2024 general election.

Holmes was previously Conservative vice-chair with responsibility for policy from November 2022 to September 2023.

He went on to serve as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Michael Gove as secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities from September 2023 to April 2024. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

In November 2023, Holmes was appointed PPS to Lord (David) Cameron as foreign secretary.

He was previously PPS to Priti Patel as home secretary. He resigned from this post in May 2022, following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. In a statement posted to his official website, Holmes said that “deep mistrust in both the government and the Conservative Party” had been created by recent events.

He said: “It is clear to me that a deep mistrust in both the government and the Conservative Party has been created by these events, something that pains me personally as someone who always tries to represent Eastleigh and its people with integrity…

“Over the last few weeks this distress has led me to conclude that I want to continue to focus solely on my efforts in being your [MP] and the campaigns that are important to you. That is why I have now resigned from my governmental responsibilities as a parliamentary private secretary at the Home Office.”

Holmes’ resignation came some weeks before the mass walkout of ministers, triggered by the Chris Pincher scandal, which ultimately forced Johnson’s own resignation.

Holmes has introduced private members’ bills on issues of education safeguarding and local planning reform:

• The Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, introduced by Holmes in October 2024, sought to create a mandatory national register of children who are not enrolled in school, to help local authorities ensure all children are receiving a suitable education.
• The Planning (Quarries) Bill, introduced March 2023, sought to make it much harder for new quarries to be approved near existing settlements and would have moved the final planning decision from local councils to the secretary of state.
• The Planning (Local Authority Housing Developments) Bill, introduced April 2021, aimed to address a potential conflict of interest by requiring an independent process for determining planning applications that have been submitted by the local authority itself.

Holmes was a member of the House of Commons housing, communities and local government committee from March 2020 to February 2021, and again from October 2022 to December 2023.

Holmes is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for Central South, hospice and end of life care, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South East and South Western Railway.

Holmes is a patron of LGBT+ Conservatives – the official LGBTQ wing of the Conservative Party.

Holmes delivered his maiden speech on 14 January 2020 during a debate on education and local government. In it, he said: “I know that [ministers] will understand that there is much more work to do on the recruitment and retention of teachers in all sectors, but I am encouraged by the announcements they have made.”

He added: “I also have a passion for social mobility, which I know ministers share. After all, it was social mobility that allowed a council estate boy like me to sit in the mother of all Parliaments today.”

Before entering parliament, Holmes served as a Conservative councillor on Southampton City Council representing Redbridge ward from 2008 to 2012. During his time on the council, he chaired the planning committee and served as cabinet member for education and social services.

Holmes previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Mitcham and Morden in the 2015 general election, finishing second to Labour incumbent Siobhain McDonagh on 10,458 votes (23.2%).

At the 2017 election, Homes stood as the Conservative candidate in Southampton Test. Again, he finished second to Labour incumbent Alan Whitehead on 16,006 votes (34.1%).

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2024: Holmes supported James Cleverly’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.

During the contest, Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, urged the party to “be more normal”. On 9 October, in a major upset, Cleverly was eliminated in the fourth ballot after his support dropped to 37 votes. The result was widely attributed to a failure of tactical voting by supporters who assumed his place in the final two was secure.

In an October 2024 article for ConservativeHome, Holmes set out why he had resigned from his position as an opposition whip to publicly endorse Cleverly. He described the former home secretary as the “standout candidate” with the experience necessary for the role.

He wrote: “We need to explain to young people why capitalism is their friend. James is best placed to do that. He has always had the same Conservative values; a smaller state, lower taxes, higher defence spending, ensuring that hard work always pays, and making sure that we encourage and reward aspiration.”

He added: “This is a vital juncture in our party’s history, and I believe that James must be the leader that takes us forward.”

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Holmes supported Tom Tugendhat’s 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.

Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee and a former soldier, was seen as the leading candidate on the party’s one nation wing. He was eliminated in the third parliamentary ballot on 18 July after receiving 31 votes.

Holmes subsequently shifted his support to Rishi Sunak. Although he won every round of the parliamentary ballots, securing 137 votes in the final stage, Sunak was defeated by Liz Truss in the membership vote, finishing with 60,399 votes (42.6%).

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Holmes again supported Sunak’s 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”. Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Sunak, having emerged as the clear frontrunner, was declared leader of the Conservative Party unopposed on 24 October.

Factional identity and party tradition

Mass deportation: In May 2025, Holmes 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.”

In February 2024, Holmes expressed concern that the decision to suspend Lee Anderson as a Conservative MP would be viewed negatively by many voters in “red wall” constituencies. Anderson, who now serves as a Reform UK MP, was suspended after claiming that “Islamists” had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London.

Holmes, then the PPS to Lord Cameron as foreign secretary, said Anderson could “drive the agenda that we can’t speak up on things” – suggesting he was an asset and therefore a loss to the party.

Conservative Environment Network: Holmes is listed as a member of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) parliamentary caucus. CEN is an independent forum for conservatives that supports conservation and decarbonisation. It calls for the environment to be given a higher profile at the heart of policy making, describing “biodiversity loss, climate change, and wasteful resource use are threats to our national security”, and promotes “market-based policies” to environmental challenges. Members of its parliamentary caucus, such as Holmes, are thought to generally align with the group’s “green” message and environmentalism.

Bright Blue: Holmes has been listed as a parliamentary supporter of Bright Blue, an independent centre-right think tank and membership organisation that champions liberal conservatism in the UK. Since its founding in 2014, the organisation has expanded its reach through a new cross-party strategy.

Brexit and Europe

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

Holmes 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).

In a statement setting out his position, issued ahead of the bill’s second reading, Holmes said: “Fundamentally, I do not believe that the provisions set out in the bill are secure enough to make sure that its good intentions are borne out in practice.

“I am also worried about coercion, which despite the best efforts of this bill, can happen behind closed doors and not seen, as we see with coercive and controlling behaviour in everyday convictions.

“I believe that the system proposed will not address this and therefore the worries I have are not satisfied with the clauses in the bill.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Holmes 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 Paul John Holmes in Southwark, London on 25 August 1988, he grew up on the Bellingham council estate in Lewisham. His father was a sales manager and his mother a shop assistant.

He attended Elfrida Primary School in Bellingham and Kelsey Park Sports College in Beckenham. He studied politics and international relations (BSc) at the University of Southampton.

After university, he worked as a researcher for Conservative MP for Wimbledon Stephen Hammond from 2011 to 2015.

In his 2019 maiden speech, Holmes said: “May I just be personally indulged as I say how pleased I am that [Stephen Hammond] is sitting next to me while I make this speech?

“He gave me my first proper job in politics – he is mad – but he had a fantastic result on 12 December [at the general election] and it is an honour to have him sitting next to me.”

He later served as a special adviser to several Conservative cabinet ministers, including Sir Patrick McLoughlin (as party chair and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) and Damian Green (as first secretary of state). Before his election in 2019, he was head of public affairs for the housing association Clarion Housing Group.

Personal Life

Holmes lives in Hedge End.

In 2024, PinkNews listed Holmes among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

Trivia

Holmes served as a Southampton City councillor while still studying at the University of Southampton.

He has said hobbies include real ale, cooking and aviation.