Victoria Prentis


Victoria Mary Boswell Prentis is a British Conservative politician who was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Banbury at the 2015 general election, and was re-elected at the 2017 general election. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to junior ministers in the Department for Transport between July 2016 and June 2017. Prentis was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Commons from June 2017 until February 2020.

Early life and career

Prentis was born Victoria Boswell, in Banbury, and grew up on the family farm in nearby Aynho. She was educated at Royal Holloway, University of London and Downing College, Cambridge, from where she has degrees in English and Law; during her time at Cambridge she was chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association. She is the daughter of Tim Boswell, Baron Boswell of Aynho, who was MP for Daventry from 1987 to 2010.
Prentis qualified as a barrister in 1995. She joined the Civil Service in 1997, leaving in November 2014. Her last job for the government was leading the "Justice and Security team" at the Treasury Solicitor's Department.

Parliamentary career

In November 2014, Prentis was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Banbury constituency at the 2015 general election. She retained the safe seat for the Conservatives. In Parliament she sits on the Justice Select Committee and the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments. Prentis is an opponent of High Speed 2, believing it will affect her constituency. She rebelled against the Conservative government when the HS2 Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons in March 2016.
Prentis was a founding supporter of Conservatives for Reform in Europe, a group which campaigned in support of the UK’s membership of a reformed European Union. Accordingly, she declared that she would vote remain in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.
Prentis supported Theresa May's candidacy during the 2016 Conservative leadership contest. She was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to junior ministers in the Department for Transport in July 2016.
She was re-elected as the MP for Banbury in the 2017 general election.
In May 2019, she endorsed candidate Rory Stewart for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
She says she voted to remain in the European Union but has since given her support to Boris Johnson's deal.
In February 2020, Prentis joined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Fisheries and Food.

Personal life

Prentis is married to Sebastian Prentis, a judge in the Insolvency and Companies Court, whom she met when they were both students at the University of Cambridge. The couple have two daughters and live in Somerton, Oxfordshire.