Amanda Solloway

Amanda Jane Edghill was born on 6 June 1961^[5] in Nottingham. She has a younger sister and brother.^{[citation needed]} She was educated at Bramcote Hills Grammar School in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire,^[5] which became comprehensive in 1978.

She started working at the age of 16 behind the counter of an off-licence before working as a management trainee at Sainsbury's supermarket where she stayed for 13 years. She then spent 15 years in human resources at charities Help the Aged and Save the Children, and in the private sector at Baird Clothing Group.^[6] In 2008 she founded her own management consultancy Amanda Solloway Limited.

Solloway was first elected at the 2015 general election for the Derby North constituency, with a majority of 41 votes, unseating the Labour MP Chris Williamson, who had been the MP for the seat since 2010. She became a parliamentary private secretary to the minister of state for the Department of International Development.^[7]

Solloway campaigned for improving provision for mental health and [[Homelessness in England|homelessness] in Derby North and in Parliament.^[8]

Solloway lost her seat at the 2017 general election to Williamson,^[9] on a night where Labour made gains across the United Kingdom. She continued to be active in Derby North, including in the 2018 Derby City Council election and 2019 Derby City Council election, where the Conservatives made gains in the Derby North constituency wards.

She regained Derby North for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election with a majority of 2,540, with Williamson (standing as an independent) in sixth place.^[10]

On 14 February 2020, Solloway was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Science, Research and Innovation at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy during the first cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.^[11] On 17 September 2021, Solloway was appointed a lord commissioner of the Treasury (Government whip) during the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.^[12]

Between July 5, 2022 and the 21st of March 2023, Solloway successfully campaigned for Derby to be chosen as the location for the Department for Transport's Great British Railways Headquarters.^[13] Her efforts included asking constituents to vote for Derby by scanning a QR code printed on a T-shirt she wore at constituency events and by holding meetings with the Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper and Minister of State for Rail and HS2 Huw Merriman.^[14][15]

In October 2023, rollingstock manufacture Alstom announced that its Derby factory Litchurch Lane could close if orders were not found to fill a production gap at the site, putting over 1,000 jobs at risk of redundancy.^[16] Solloway described her work to address this as her "main priority" over the following eight months until, in June 2024, a deal between Alstom and Transport for London, financed by £220 million of Department for Transport funding was agreed for an order of 10 Elizabeth Line trains.^[17] Over this period Solloway routinely met with the Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper who stated Solloway "deserved a lot of credit for her absolutely tenacious campaigning" for a solution for Alstom's production gap. ^[18][19]

Solloway lives in Derbyshire and was patron of the Friends Of The Baby Unit at Royal Derby Hospital.^[20] She ran the London Marathon, in 2016 and 2017, and, in doing so, raised money for the hospital's baby unit.

She is also a Trustee at the Landau Forte Charitable Trust which runs 6 school academies across the Midlands.^[21]

In May 2023, Solloway paid a £80 fixed penalty notice which was issued on 2 July 2020 for a missed congestion charge payment, which had been paid through her expenses, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority's (IPSA) expenses register.^[22][23]

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou