About Theresa

Portrait photo of Theresa Villiers MP

Theresa lives in Arkley in Barnet. She grew up in St John’s Wood before studying at the University of Bristol, where she achieved a first in law and was ranked second in her year. She went on to Oxford, where she attained a BCL graduate degree. A former barrister, she was a lecturer at King’s College London when the London Conservatives chose her to top the list of their candidates for the European Election in 1999.

Representing the capital for six years as an MEP, Theresa was Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to 2002. She was also responsible for steering the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID) through the European Parliament and was a leading figure in efforts to increase cross border trade in financial services.

Between 2005 and 2024, Theresa served in the House of Commons as MP for Chipping Barnet. In December 2005, after just seven months in parliament, David Cameron appointed Theresa to his Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. As well as working with George Osborne on Conservative economic policy, Theresa led the Opposition scrutiny of the Finance Bills in 2006 and 2007 – this process is a notoriously complex and difficult task but Theresa gained vital concessions from Gordon Brown who was then the Chancellor. At David Cameron’s first reshuffle in July 2007, she gained further promotion and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.

When the Coalition took office on May 2010, Theresa was appointed to the Privy Council and became Minister of State for Transport. Her role included responsibility for delivering the transport needed for the hugely successful London 2012 Olympics and strategic oversight of major rail projects such as construction of the Elizabeth Line and the upgrades of Thameslink and the London Underground.

Theresa was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in September 2012, a role she held until July 2016. She was only the 35th woman ever appointed to the UK Cabinet. In her role as Northern Ireland Secretary, she was responsible for delivering the security operation for the G8 summit which took place in County Fermanagh in June 2013, involving the deployment of 8000 police officers.

In 2014 Theresa chaired eleven weeks of cross party talks in Belfast resulting in the Stormont House Agreement which set out a way forward on resolving a number of crucial issues threatening the stability of the political settlement in Northern Ireland. After problems with implementation, Theresa stepped in again, chairing a further ten weeks of talks in 2015 which delivered the Fresh Start Agreement. Without a successful conclusion to these talks, it is highly likely that Northern Ireland's devolved institutions would have collapsed. 

From 2019 to 2020, Theresa served in Boris Johnson's first Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, presenting ground-breaking legislation to Parliament. That included an Environment Bill to set demanding new targets on cleaning up air quality and protecting nature and biodiversity, as well as legislation on farming and fishing enable the UK to leave the EU's CAP and CFP and replace those programmes with a better greener alternative. She also announced plans to end the export of live animals for slaughter.

Theresa was re-elected four times as Barnet's MP, in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019. Throughout her 19 years representing Chipping Barnet, she kept up busy schedule of campaigning and engagements in her constituency. Some of her key local campaigns included:

  1. Securing upgraded facilities for Barnet Market and supporting our local high streets.
  2. Delivering local neighbourhood police teams for every ward in Chipping Barnet (2005) and then getting them expanded.
  3. Re-opening the health centres in Brunswick Park and East Barnet (2013 and 2015 respectively).
  4. Expanding maternity and A&E services at Barnet Hospital (2015), and securing a major rebuild of Chase Farm Hospital (2019). Secured a further expansion of Barnet Hospital A&E in 2024; and a significant increase in the number of GP appointments in Barnet.
  5. Saving Barnet Council breastfeeding support services from closure (2018).
  6. Saving East Barnet Post Office from the closure.
  7. Successfully persuading BT to deliver high speed broadband to more homes in the constituency, to fill gaps in provision.
  8. Campaigned against antisemitism and in support of Israel and its right to defend itself. Successfully lobbied for additional funding to protect the Jewish community (2023).
  9. Worked with the local Tamil community to highlight human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
  10. Supported efforts to find a just, lasting and balanced settlement to reunite Cyprus.
  11. Backed the creation of the first ever Greek Orthodox secondary school, and the first cross-community Jewish secondary school (opened in 2013 and 2011 respectively). Supported local secondary schools to become academies, such as the Totteridge Academy.
  12. Worked with local residents to prevent the building of an Asda superstore in New Barnet to save the site for new family homes (2015).
  13. Defeated plans to build a waste disposal centre at Pinkham Way.
  14. Stopped a cemetery being built on the green belt at Arkley (2016) and preventing a caravan park from being constructed over a field in Mays Lane (2024).
  15. Strongly opposed overdevelopment, particularly where it impacts on the green belt, back gardens or other green spaces, such as Whalebones in High Barnet and Cat Hill in Cockfosters. She also fought for many years against new high rise blocks of flats at North London Business Park and the redevelopment of Barnet House.
  16. Convinced the then Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, to veto plans by the Mayor of London to build over Cockfosters station car park. She also led a campaign to stop the Mayor from building over High Barnet station car park.
  17. Whilst Transport Minister, secured funding for the tube upgrade, improving reliability and frequency on the Northern Line (2010). Stopped plans to split the Northern Line which would deny Barnet residents direct access to the Charing Cross branch.
  18. Campaigned strongly against the Mayor of London’s plans to sell off Barnet police station.
  19. Persuaded the previous Conservative Government to deliver 20,000 additional police, meaning that by 2024, the Met had more officers than ever before.
  20. Successfully lobbied for additional funding to protect the Jewish community (2023).
  21. Part of the cross-party campaign to get 84B bus route from Potters Bar to Barnet restored (2023). Persuaded TfL to step in and save the 107 bus when Herts CC withdrew funding (2016).
  22. Pushed GTR to restore peak time rail services at Oakleigh Park and New Southgate stations (2019).
  23. Helped obtain a £6.6 billion rescue package for Transport for London after the Covid emergency (2022).
  24. Secured £368,000 potholes funding for Barnet out of the money released from cancelling the northern leg of HS2 (2024). London had been denied a share of previous pothole money.
  25. Campaigned successfully for more money for Barnet schools. Led a successful five year cross-party campaign to save maintained nursery schools threatened with closure. Lobbied successfully for new buildings and facilities for local schools such as Alma Primary, East Barnet and Cromer Road.
  26. Lobbied the Chancellor for an expansion of free childcare (delivered in 2023 Budget).
  27. Twice persuaded the Chancellor to introduce business rate reductions for high street businesses.
  28. Defeated plans by Barnet council and TfL to impose bus lanes in Cat Hill in East Barnet and on the A1000 in Whetstone High Road (2024).