Rebecca Paul is the Conservative MP for Reigate, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Paul won 18,822 votes, representing 35.4% of the vote. The Labour candidate, Stuart Brady, received 15,635 votes (29.4%), while the Reform UK candidate, Joseph Fox, secured 7,240 votes (13.6%). Paul was duly elected with a majority of 3,187.

The Reigate constituency is located in Surrey, in the South East of England. The seat has been held by the Conservative Party since the February 1974 general election.

Political Career

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

Paul served as an opposition assistant whip on the Conservative frontbench from November 2024 to August 2026. This role meant Paul was partly responsible for enforcing party discipline.

In an October 2025 interview with the House magazine, Paul described herself as a “big fan” of Kemi Badenoch and said she had become disenchanted during David Cameron’s leadership of the Conservative party. “I just felt like we weren’t being Conservative”, she said.

Paul has sat as a member of the House of Commons women and equalities select committee (2025-2026), education select committee (2025-2026), and public accounts committee (2024-2025). She was also a member of the public bill committee for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill from 2025 to March 2025.

Paul has been listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for better roads (chair), the built environment (co-chair), family hubs, women, peace and security and women’s rights.

Paul delivered her maiden speech on 28 October 2024 during a debate on remembrance and veterans.

In it, she said: “I hope this Labour government will consider tackling the issue of housing with the same spirit shown by the Labour government elected in the final months of the second world war.

“Then as now, the country was in desperate need of more homes; Clement Attlee delivered 1 million of them, while insisting both on densification and ensuring that development was concentrated in cities and towns.

“Mr Attlee set out to build his new Jerusalem primarily as a fitting tribute to a generation of servicemen who fought, endured and suffered to keep this country safe from fascist tyranny.”

Before entering parliament, Paul was elected as a Conservative councillor on Surrey County Council in May 2021. She remained a councillor upon her election to parliament in 2024.

Political Views

Paul 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).

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Paul 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

Paul was born in 1979.

Paul studied biochemistry and genetics at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2001.

Paul was a chartered account and chartered tax adviser for 20 years, holding senior roles at Diageo, PepsiCo, Jigsaw and Ernst & Young.

From 2020 to 2022, Paul worked in the office of Conservative MP Robin Millar.

Personal Life

Paul is married and has three children.

Trivia

Before entering politics, Paul founded her own loose leaf tea business, Silver Lantern Tea.