Andrew Lewer

In March 2018, Lewer was criticised by local campaigners over cuts to library services in Northampton. Criticism followed the announcement that 21 book-lending services were at risk of closure in Northamptonshire, after the Conservative run County Council cut £40 million from its budget. Lewer responded that he had been far from silent on the issue and that he had been a long-standing critic of the leadership of the Council.

In February 2018, following the announcement that Northamptonshire County Council had brought in a "section 114" notice, putting it in special measures following a crises in its finances, Lewer was one of seven local MPs who released a statement arguing that the problems with the authority were down to mismanagement from the Conservative councillors who led it rather than funding cuts from the Conservative Government. They further argued that government commissioners should take over the running of the Council. In August 2018, Lewer broke ranks with the other MPs and said that while mismanagement had fuelled the Northamptonshire crisis, the council was also a victim of underlying financial pressures affecting all local authorities with social care responsibilities.

In May 2017, Lewer was selected to run as the new Conservative Party candidate for the Northampton South parliamentary constituency after the sitting Conservative MP David Mackintosh stood down in the face of a police investigation into alleged irregularities surrounding a controversial loan he had approved in his former role as the leader of the local council. Lewer was reportedly on his way to Brussels when he took a call informing him he was shortlisted, and had to turn around to get back in time for the meeting. Although not from Northampton, Lewer represented Northamptonshire within his East Midlands region as an MEP.

Lewer was subsequently elected Member of Parliament for Northampton South in the 2017 general election. Following his election win, he stood down as an MEP and was replaced in that role by former author Rupert Matthews. He retained his seat at the 2019 general election with an increased majority.

Lewer was elected to the European Parliament representing the East Midlands in 2014, replacing the former Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, who had defected to UKIP. Lewer was appointed to the Regional Development Committee and the Culture Committee as spokesperson for the European Conservative and Reformists Group in 2014.

Although he was re-elected as a councillor, in the 2013 elections Labour regained control of Derbyshire County Council and Lewer lost his position as Council Leader. He was awarded an MBE for services to local government in 2014 by the Conservative Government.

He is a member of the European Research Group – the primary Eurosceptic lobbying group within Parliament.

Living in Derbyshire, he was elected as a Conservative Party Councillor to Derbyshire Dales District Council for the Ashbourne South ward in 2003 and then to Derbyshire County Council for the Ashbourne division in 2005. He became Group Leader in 2007. The Conservatives took control of Derbyshire County Council in 2009, for the first time in 28 years, making Lewer the youngest county council leader in the country at the time. As Leader of the County Council, he also became Chairman of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site committee, the founding Chairman of the Health and Wellbeing Board and a founding director of the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - D2N2.

Andrew Iain Lewer MBE (born 18 July 1971 in Burnley, Lancashire) is a British Conservative Party politician. Elected as the Member of Parliament for Northampton South in the 2017 general election, he previously served as Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands from 2014 to 2017.

Lewer was born 18 July 1971 in Burnley, Lancashire. He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Ashbourne, Derbyshire before studying History at Newcastle University. He then entered into a career in publishing.