Neil Parish was elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton on 6thMay 2010. On 7th May 2015 he was re-elected with an increased majority.

Before entering politics, Neil was a farmer in his native Somerset and still lives on a farm to this day.  Prior to entering Parliament, Neil was one of the Members of the European Parliament for the South West of England, and before that he was a County Councillor on Somerset County Council. Throughout his time in politics, at all levels, Neil’s focus has always been on representing the views of residents.

Throughout his first term as an MP, Neil worked on a broad range of farming and rural affairs issues. Neil sat on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee during his first term. In addition to this, he was Chair of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare from 2010 to 2015 and he also established and three farming All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs). These were the Beef and Lamb APPG, the Eggs, Pigs and Poultry APPG and the Dairy APPG.

Neil used his Chairmanship of these APGs to hold inquiries into the dairy crisis, which has been submitted to the government and is currently under consideration.

In 2014, Neil was selected to be the Rt Hon John Hayes MP’s Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), who was then the Minister of State for Transport. He worked hard to liaise between the back benches and the Minister and Department for Transport.

Upon his return to Parliament, Neil was honoured to be elected as Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. Neil will draw on his experience from the European Parliament, where he was Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. During his time as Chair, he played an instrumental role in setting up Public Inquiry into the Foot and Mouth Outbreak. Neil knows the importance of conducting inquiries into flood drainage boards, the roll-out of rural broadband and playing a part in protecting Britain’s landscape.