Simon Wright (politician)


Simon James Wright is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 2010–15, defeating frontbench incumbent Charles Clarke, winning 29.7% of the votes and a narrow majority of 310 votes.

Early life

Wright was educated at Imperial College London and King's College London.
Wright has worked as a maths teacher at Alderman Peel High School in Wells-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk.

Political career

Wright was elected as a councillor for the Lancaster North ward on North Norfolk District Council in 2003. Wright achieved the second-highest percentage of the vote of three seats available in the poll behind Cllr Nich Starling.
Later that year, Wright quit his job as a teacher to become campaigns officer for Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk. In 2005, Wright oversaw Norman Lamb's successful re-election campaign in North Norfolk, which increased his majority from 483 votes to 10,606.
Wright stepped down as campaigns officer in 2007 to devote himself full-time to being the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Norwich South.
Wright's first parliamentary appointment saw him appointed to the Environmental Audit Select Committee in July 2010.
He lost his seat at the 2015 general election, when he finished in fourth place behind the Green, Conservative and Labour Party candidates.

Personal life

The member of staff whom Wright replaced as campaigns officer for Norman Lamb became his wife in 2006.
He is now CEO of a children's bereavement charity called Nelson's Journey in Norfolk.
In 2019 Simon married Anna Thorpe.