Brooks Newmark appointed Minister for Civil Society

The Conservative MP for Braintree, Brooks Newmark, has been appointed minister for civil society in the government reshuffle and has promised to build on his predecessor’s excellent work.

In 2010 Newmark co-founded the charity A Partner in Education, of which he is a trustee, which was set up to furnish a new school in Rwanda. Over the three years since it has been registered with the Charity Commission its total income has been £4,200 with an expenditure of £24,000.

He is also involved with two local charities Farleigh Hospice and PARC, a play centre for children with additional needs.

In February this year he pledged his support for the ‘Mind the Gap’ fuel poverty campaign being run by the charity Turn2us and has also supported Breast Cancer Campaign’s Wear it Pink day.

Two years ago he praised the efforts of a local food bank and took part in collecting donations outside a supermarket.

Newmark entered Parliament at the 2005 election as the MP for Braintree and served on the Science and Technology Committee and Treasury Select Committee. He was promoted to the whips’ office in 2007.

Between 2010 and 2012 he was as a senior government whip with responsibility for the Department of Business and the Wales Office and was later given responsibility for the Department for International Affairs and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office.

Newmark lists his special interests as economic policy, foreign affairs, poverty reduction and international development (microfinance), special needs education and women and equality.

He is the founder and co-chair of Women2Win, the campaign to increase the number of Conservative women in Parliament.

He has travelled to Syria a number of times and earlier this year was caught up in the aftermath of a bomb blast in the Iraqi capital Baghdad while on a fact-finding mission. In 2011 he was criticised by the Labour party for conducting meetings with the Syrian president Bashir Al Assad, and in 2013 he called on the government to arm Syrian rebels.

The Treasury has confirmed that Priti Patel will be responsible for charity tax issues, in her role as exchequer secretary that was also announced in the reshuffle.