Robert Halfon

Halfon's paternal grandfather, Renato Halfon, was an Italian Jewish clothing manufacturer living in Libya until he was forced to leave in 1968, after which he joined Clement in England.

Halfon was privately educated at Highgate School and then studied at University of Exeter, graduating with a BA in Politics and MA in Russian politics and Eastern European politics.

Alongside David Burrowes, Sajid Javid, and Tim Montgomerie, he was a leading member of Exeter University Conservative Association and helped to turn it from social to political activities.

Robert Henry Halfon (born 22 March 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow since 2010.

Halfon was formerly a researcher for Conservative MPs, including as Chief of Staff to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Oliver Letwin.

He was also the political director of Conservative Friends of Israel.

Robert Henry Halfon was born in the Westminster district of London on 22 March 1969, and grew up in London's Hampstead area.

His mother, Jennifer, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

His Libyan Jewish father, Clement, is Orthodox and comes from a Sephardic family; he now lives in Israel.

In 1991, he took the issue of compulsory membership of the National Union of Students to the European Court of Human Rights, which decided his application was manifestly ill-founded.

After graduating, Halfon worked for a time selling memberships for an upmarket London hotel, before he got a job as a part-time researcher for Harold Elletson, then-Conservative MP for Blackpool North.

He subsequently worked for other Conservative MPs, including Michael Fabricant.

He was Chief of Staff for senior Conservative MP Oliver Letwin before becoming political director for Conservative Friends of Israel.

He also spent some time working for a leading London-based Public Affairs company, Market Access.

Halfon unsuccessfully contested the seat of Harlow for the Conservative party at the 2001 general election and 2005 general elections, losing by 97 votes on the second occasion.

He was elected to the British House of Commons for Harlow at the 2010 general election.

His third run for Harlow was successful and after the 2010 general election, he was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs. He delivered his maiden speech in the House on 2 June 2010.

He had the first MP's apprentice in the House of Commons and, as of 2013, was on his third apprentice who came from Harlow College.

For his work on apprenticeships, he was named Avanta's Politician of the Year in 2013.

After becoming an MP, Halfon founded the Petrol Promise campaign, an online website and petition calling for lower fuel tax and an official inquiry into the oil market due to the suspected manipulation of petrol prices.

He is a supporter of the FairFuelUK pressure group, and has raised the issue of cheaper petrol in Parliament.

He also presented a petition calling for an inquiry into price-fixing at the Office of Fair Trading, signed by 30,000 motorists in 2013.

This led to Chancellor George Osborne calling him a "champion of the people he represents".

He won The Spectator's Campaigner of the Year Award in 2013 for his work fighting to keep petrol duty low.

Halfon has campaigned against privatised utility companies making excessive profits.

In 2013, he published a study of water companies in East Anglia examining their profits and called for an inquiry.

He has called for a windfall tax to be imposed on energy companies who are found to be unnecessarily putting up prices to customers.

Halfon has also campaigned for reducing the tax rate on low-paid workers, arguing in 2013 that a near living wage could be achieved if the government reintroduced the 10p band of income tax or increased the National Insurance threshold, citing this as an alternative to the living wage which he said could damage small local businesses.

Halfon has said that one of the three things that motivate him in politics is "unashamed support for the State of Israel, as the only real democracy and progressive force in the Middle East".

On 18 July 2014, he was chosen by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to be his Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Halfon is a supporter of apprenticeships, and campaigned for a new university technical college to be built in Harlow, which opened in September 2014 as Sir Charles Kao UTC.

He set up the Parliamentary Academy, which encourages MPs to employ apprentices in Parliament.

He was re-elected in 2015, 2017, and 2019.

Halfon attended Prime Minister David Cameron's Cabinet from May 2015 and July 2016 as Minister without portfolio and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

He was re-elected at the 2015 general election and 2017 general election.

Between May 2015 and July 2016, Halfon served as Minister without Portfolio (attending Cabinet) and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

He served in Prime Minister Theresa May's government as Minister of State for Skills at the Department for Education from July 2016 to June 2017.

After returning to the backbenches, Halfon chaired the House of Commons Education Select Committee from July 2017 to October 2022, when he was appointed Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

From July 2016, he was Minister of State at the Department for Education, before being dismissed on 12 June 2017 by the Prime Minister Theresa May.

In the House of Commons he sits on the Liaison Committee (Commons) and Education Committee, and has previously sat on the Public Administration Select Committee.