James Cleverly


Sir James Spencer Cleverly is a British politician and Army Reserve officer who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2025. He previously served as Home Secretary from November 2023 to July 2024 and as Foreign Secretary from 2022 to 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament for Braintree since 2015. He previously served as Education Secretary from July to September 2022, Chairman of the Conservative Party alongside Ben Elliot from 2019 to 2020, and in other junior ministerial positions.
Born in Lewisham, Cleverly attended Riverston School and Colfe's School. He went on to study hospitality management studies at the Ealing College of Higher Education, before he pursued a military career after he was commissioned into the Army Reserve in 1991. Cleverly was elected to the London Assembly for Bexley and Bromley in the 2008 election for the Conservative Party, and served as the party's leader in the assembly from 2011 to 2012. He was elected to the House of Commons for Braintree at the 2015 general election, and later stood down from the London Assembly at the 2016 election. He advocated a vote for Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum, and was reelected to parliament in the 2017 general election.
In the second May ministry, Cleverly served as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2018 to 2019 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from April to July 2019. He was promoted to the Cabinet as minister without portfolio in the First Johnson ministry, serving as Chairman of the Conservative Party alongside Ben Elliot from 2019 to 2020. Cleverly was demoted from the Cabinet in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle; serving as Minister of State for Middle East, North Africa and North America from February 2020 to February 2022 and as Minister of State for Europe and North America from February to July 2022. During the July 2022 government crisis, Cleverly returned to Cabinet, succeeding Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State for Education.
In September 2022, he was appointed foreign secretary by Prime Minister Liz Truss, whom he had directly served under while she was Foreign Secretary. Retained as foreign secretary when Rishi Sunak became prime minister in October 2022, Cleverly was then appointed home secretary in the November 2023 cabinet reshuffle, being succeeded as foreign secretary by former prime minister David Cameron. As Home Secretary, Cleverly committed to maintaining the Rwanda asylum plan and introduced a plan to substantially reduce legal migration to the UK by raising the threshold for family visas. After Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Cleverly was appointed Shadow Home Secretary in Sunak's shadow cabinet, and later launched his bid to become Leader of the Conservative Party but was knocked out of the contest in the final round of MP voting. He spent eight months on the backbenches after the election of Kemi Badenoch as leader, receiving a knighthood in April 2025 for political and public service, before returning to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Housing Secretary in a reshuffle in July 2025.

Early life and education

James Cleverly was born on 4 September 1969 in Lewisham Hospital, Lewisham to James Philip and Evelyn Suna Cleverly. He spent part of his childhood in Chelmsford. His English father worked as a surveyor and his Sierra Leonean mother worked as a midwife. He was privately educated at Riverston School and Colfe's School in Lee. He pursued hospitality management studies at Ealing College of Higher Education graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1991.
After graduation, Cleverly worked for publishing company Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen, and joined Informa as international sales manager in 2002. In 2004, he joined Crimson Publishing as an advertising manager. He became online commercial manager for Caspian Publishing in 2006. The following year, he co-founded web publishing company Point and Fire.

Military service

Cleverly's initial training at Sandhurst was curtailed by a leg injury sustained in 1989. On 6 October 1991, he was commissioned into the Army Reserve, as a second lieutenant. In January 1993, his commission was confirmed and he was appointed substantive second lieutenant. Cleverly was promoted to lieutenant on 6 October 1993, to captain on 26 May 1998, and to major on 1 November 2003.
Until 2005, Cleverly was Battery Commander of 266 Battery Royal Artillery. Cleverly was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 March 2015. He was serving with 100 Regiment, Royal Artillery, working as a Staff Officer in 1st Division.

London assembly career (2008–2016)

In March 2007, Cleverly was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Bexley and Bromley constituency of the London Assembly. The London Assembly election was held on 1 May with the count and declaration on 2 May, where he received 105,162 votes and a majority of 75,237.
In January 2009, Cleverly was appointed as the Mayor of London's youth ambassador, a newly created role which was seen as being a replacement post for the deputy mayor for young people, a post left vacant after the resignation of Ray Lewis. The creation of the role caused some controversy as it was not filled by a mayoral appointment but by a member of the Assembly whose formal role was to scrutinise the Mayor. The decision was defended because of the precedent set by the appointment of Kit Malthouse as Deputy Mayor for Policing.
In February 2010, Cleverly was appointed as the chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board, replacing Boris Johnson who had stood down. In August 2010, Cleverly posted a tweet saying: "We may be coalition partners but it doesn't stop me thinking Simon Hughes is a dick." This was in response to a suggestion by Hughes, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, that backbench MPs should be able to veto Coalition policies. He later apologised.
In November 2010, Cleverly was re-selected to be the Conservative candidate for Bexley and Bromley at the 2012 London Assembly election, going on to win the seat with 88,482 votes and a majority of 47,768. After the defeat of Brian Coleman at the election, Cleverly was appointed to the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

Parliamentary career (2015–present)

Backbenches (2015–2019)

In January 2015, Cleverly was selected to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Braintree, after the sitting Conservative MP Brooks Newmark stood down following controversy over sending sexually suggestive messages to an undercover reporter. His selection came after the initial selection process was quietly suspended by Conservative Campaign Headquarters, after the local party chose someone not on the approved candidates list and was told to "think again". At the 2015 general election, Cleverly was elected to Parliament as MP for Braintree, winning 53.8% of the vote and a majority of 17,610. Following the election, Cleverly did not defend his seat at the 2016 London Assembly election.
In November 2015, Cleverly was criticised for pushing through the closure of 10 fire stations in London after the death of an elderly man in Camden following delays in the arrival of fire crews. In response, Cleverly said: "It is impossible for them to say that with certainty. I think it would be much wiser for the FBU to wait for the details of that fire investigation to come out before they start making these opportunistic allegations."
In January 2016, the Labour Party proposed an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill 2016, which would have required private landlords to make homes which they put up for rent fit for human habitation. According to Parliament's register of interests, Cleverly was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment and who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative Government had responded to the amendment by saying that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it. In March 2016, Cleverly was asked to step down as patron of Advocacy for All, a charity supporting disadvantaged people in South East England. The charity felt he was no longer a suitable person for the role, given that he had voted to cut Employment and Support Allowance.
Cleverly advocated voting for Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum. At the 2017 general election, Cleverly was re-elected with an increased vote share of 62.8% and an increased majority of 18,422. In January 2018 he was appointed as a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party before becoming a junior minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union in April 2019. In October 2018, Cleverly defended Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey over potentially Islamophobic and anti-Hindu comments made in a pamphlet and suggested that black boys were drifting into crime as a result of learning more about faiths other than "their own Christian culture". On 29 May 2019, Cleverly announced he was standing to replace Theresa May in the 2019 Conservative leadership election, before withdrawing from the race on 4 June 2019.

Frontbench career (2019–2022)

Following the appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Cleverly was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party, serving alongside Ben Elliot. At the 2019 general election, Cleverly was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 67.5% and an increased majority of 24,673.
In the 2020 cabinet reshuffle, Cleverly was removed from Johnson's cabinet and appointed Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. He became Minister of State for Middle East, North Africa and North America in December 2021, before being appointed Minister of State for Europe and North America in February 2022. In September 2020, he expressed concern about a "looming" famine in Yemen.
In March 2021, Cleverly described the situation in Yemen as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In March 2022, he said that attempts to compare Saudi Arabia to Russia were "ridiculously distasteful", describing Saudi Arabia as an "incredibly influential country in the region" and a "significant oil and gas producer." On 7 July 2022, Cleverly succeeded Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State for Education, a post that he held for almost two months.