Braintree MP Brooks Newmark quits as government minister

  • Anglia
Brooks Newmark has been the Conservative MP for Braintree since 2005. Credit: PA Wire

The Braintree MP Brooks Newmark has resigned as a Cabinet Office minister after a story about his private life is to appear in a Sunday newspaper.

It's another blow for David Cameron coming on the eve of the Conservative Party conference. and the defection of a second Tory MP to UKIP. Kent MP Mark Reckless has joined the former Clacton MP Douglas Carswell in joining the party led by Nigel Farage.

Brooks Newmark said that he was quitting as Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for civil society.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has accepted Brooks Newmark's resignation from his role as Minister for Civil Society."

American-born Mr Newmark first entered Parliament as MP for Braintree in 2005.

He made his mark as a backbencher with his interventions on the economy - serving as a member of the Treasury Committee - and more recently on Syria.He was made a Cabinet Office minister in Mr Cameron's last reshuffle in July, having previously served a spell in the Tory whips office.

With his resignation coming so hard on the heels of Mr Reckless's defection, the Conservatives could hardly have had a worse start to what will be their final annual conference before next year's general election.

The Braintree constituency covers an area of north Essex up to the border with Suffolk. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Brooks Newmark won the marginal seat of Braintree in 2005 from Labour's Alan Hurst. It was one of the few Conservative gains in that General Election which saw Tory leader Michael Howard defeated by Tony Blair.

Mr Newmark won the seat with a majority of nearly 4,000 votes and increased that majority to 16,121 five years later.

He is married with four sons and a daughter.

Before becoming an MP, Mr Newmark worked in finance including Lehman Brothers from 1984-7 and he was a senior partner of Apollo Management LP, a leading International Private Equity firm.

  • The Reading East MP Rob Wilson has been appointed as Mr Newmark's replacement at the Cabinet Office