Claire Coutinho

Claire Coutinho
Official portrait, 2019
Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Assumed office
31 August 2023
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byGrant Shapps
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing
In office
28 October 2022 – 31 August 2023
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byKelly Tolhurst
Succeeded byDavid Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People, Health and Work
In office
21 September 2022 – 28 October 2022
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Preceded byChloe Smith
Succeeded byTom Pursglove
Member of Parliament
for East Surrey
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded bySam Gyimah
Majority24,040 (40.3%)
Personal details
Born
Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho

(1985-07-08) 8 July 1985 (age 38)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materExeter College, Oxford
Websiteclairecoutinho.com

Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho (born 8 July 1985) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey since the 2019 general election. She was appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on 31 August 2023. She previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing from October 2022 to 31 August 2023 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People from September to October 2022. She is a member of the Conservative Party. Before her political career, Coutinho worked for investment bank Merrill Lynch, accounting firm KPMG and as a special adviser in HM Treasury.

Early life

Coutinho was born in 1985 in London. Her parents emigrated from India in the late 1970s and are of Goan Christian descent. Her father Winston was an anaesthetist, and her mother Maria is a GP. Coutinho attended James Allen's Girls' School, a private day school in Dulwich, before studying mathematics and philosophy at Exeter College, Oxford. After graduating, she worked in the emerging markets equity team as an associate at the investment bank Merrill Lynch for nearly four years. In 2012, Coutinho left the company, and co-founded, with food writer Mina Holland, a literary-themed events company called The Novel Diner. Two years later, she appeared on the cooking game show The Taste judged by Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson The Novel Diner was dissolved in 2015.

Coutinho then worked for two years at Iain Duncan Smith's centre-right think tank Centre for Social Justice. She then became a programme director for the industry group Housing and Finance Institute. After this, she worked for accounting firm KPMG as a Corporate Responsibility Manager. Coutinho left the company to become a special adviser at HM Treasury. Initially she worked for Chief Whip Julian Smith, and then became an aide to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak. Coutinho has commented that she left KPMG to join the government as a special adviser so that she could help deliver Brexit "from the inside", which she had supported in the 2016 EU referendum.

Parliamentary career

Coutinho was selected as the Conservative candidate for East Surrey on 11 November 2019. It is a safe Conservative constituency having elected a member of the party since 1918. She was elected as MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 24,040 (40.3%). The seat had previously been held by former minister Sam Gyimah who had the Conservative whip withdrawn after voting for the EU Withdrawal Act, an attempt to prevent a no-deal Brexit, and had subsequently joined the Liberal Democrats.

In May 2020, she was criticised by several of her local constituents for supporting Dominic Cummings (then the PM's chief advisor) in taking a controversial 260 mile trip from London to County Durham during a national lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, an apparent protest took place as the windows of the East Surrey Conservative Association offices were daubed in black paint. Surrey Police stated they were investigating the vandalism.

Coutinho was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at HM Treasury, and joined the advisory board of the centre-right think tank Onward in February 2020. She resigned from her position as PPS on 6 July 2022 in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership following the Chris Pincher scandal. Coutinho endorsed Rishi Sunak in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

In October 2022, she was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing. In February 2023, she wrote to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to voice her opposition to the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone in the city. In August 2023, Coutinho wrote to social landlords, housing associations and developers calling on them to let childminders work from rented properties. She commented that restrictive clauses in their contracts may stop them working from their homes.

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

On 31 August 2023, Coutinho was appointed as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, replacing Grant Shapps; she was the first of the MPs elected in 2019 to join the Cabinet, and at 38 is the youngest member.


This page was last updated at 2023-08-31 22:46 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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