Brooks Newmark

He has volunteered for the Braintree Salvation Army and the homeless charity Crisis in London. His report for the Centre for Social Justice think-tank on rough sleeping highlighted the growth of ‘tent cities’ and the normalisation of rough sleeping.

In April 2016, Newmark was made President of the new Braintree District Community Foundation, an organisation led by local people supporting community projects.

He was a director of Telesis Management Ltd and AAA MIP Limited. He has been a director of Connaught Brown since 2015 and a director of the Catholic Herald since 2016.

Newmark's special interests include: Economic Policy, Foreign Affairs (Middle East, India, China and USA); Poverty Reduction & International Development (Micro Finance), Special Needs Education and Women & Equality (Founder and Co-Chairman of Women2Win). Many female candidates in the 2015 general election were subsequently successful in their bid to become MPs.

Newmark resigned as Minister for Civil Society on 27 September 2014, a day before the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. David Cameron accepted Newmark's resignation following allegations, published by the Sunday Mirror, that he had been sexting with a ‘female party activist’ who was in fact a male undercover reporter who was posing as a female to deliberately target Newmark, having failed with various other male MPs, over social media.

Fellow Conservative MP Mark Pritchard announced that he would make a formal complaint against the newspaper saying that "questionable techniques" had been involved in the paper's report. An IPSO investigation later cleared the Sunday Mirror of any wrongdoing in an announcement that came three weeks after the regulator was formed. Following a new "text-and-tell story" in October 2014 involving a young mother, Newmark announced he would not seek re-election to Parliament in the forthcoming general election.

Newmark is involved in various charities including PARC, a respite centre based in Braintree for Children with severe disabilities, Farleigh Hospice and A Partner in Education, which he founded in 2010.

He served as a Government Whip for Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Department for International Development, Department for Business, and Innovation & Skills. In opposition, Newmark served as the Foreign Affairs Whip (2009–10) and Treasury Whip (2007—08). Newmark had previously served as a Member of the Treasury Select Committee (2006—07) and the Science & Technology Select Committee (2005—07). Newmark was re-elected onto the Treasury Select Committee in 2012 after 5 years in the Whips' Office. In mid July 2014, Newmark was appointed as the Minister for Civil Society, in the Cabinet Office. In response to a question, following his first public speech in that role, he said that charities should "stick to their knitting" and "keep out of the realm of politics". It was later argued that these quotations were taken out of context, and in fact suggested that politicians should support charities, but not interfere.

In 2009 Newmark co-founded the charity A Partner in Education, which helps Rwandan teachers to give the nation's children an improved education. It supports training for teachers and provides an inclusive environment for children. The charity has built a school in Rwanda that caters for over 300 children.

During his time as an MP, Newmark co-founded and co-chaired Women2Win, an organisation established to encourage women into politics and public service. Newmark is credited for increasing the number of Conservative female MPs from 17 to 68 between 2005 and 2015. He also co-founded the Million Jobs Campaign to address the need for more to be done regarding youth unemployment. In the 2015 budget, the Chancellor abolished National Insurance for anyone 18—25 and newly employed following a recommendation by Newmark.

Publications include: Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party (2005); Simply Red; The True State of the Public Finances (CPS, 2006); The Price of Irresponsibility (CPS, 2008) and the Hidden Debt Bombshell (CPS, 2009).

Newmark contested Newcastle Central in 1997, and Braintree in 2001. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Braintree (in mid Essex) in the 2005 general election over the Labour incumbent, Alan Hurst, and was re-elected in 2010 with a greater majority.

Newmark was Vice President in the International Division of Shearson Lehman Brothers from 1984 to 1987, a Managing Director of Newmark Brothers Ltd., a corporate finance advisory company, from 1988 to 1993, and then a director of Stellican Ltd from 1993 to 1998. From 1998 to 2005, Newmark was a senior partner at Apollo Management (UK) LP, an international private equity firm.

Brooks Phillip Victor Newmark (born 8 May 1958) is a homelessness campaigner and member of the Rough Sleepers Advisory Committee that advises the Home Office. A former British politician, Newmark served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Braintree until 2015. Prior to entering politics, he was involved in various businesses and was previously a Senior Partner at an International Private Equity firm. Newmark is currently a visiting academic at the University of Oxford and became a guest lecturer in politics after finishing his parliamentary career. First elected in 2005, he served in various positions including as Minister for Civil Society, government whip, and foreign affairs whip in opposition. On 11 October 2014, following fresh allegations of sending sexually-explicit text messages, Newmark announced that he would stand down at the 2015 general election. Newmark is a founder of the charity A Partner in Education, which helps Rwandan teachers deliver a better education to Rwandan children.

Newmark was born in Westport, Connecticut, in the United States, on 8 May 1958 to Howard Newmark and Gilda Gourlay (née Rames). He is of Jewish heritage. He moved to the UK aged nine and attended Caldicott Preparatory School and Bedford School and graduated from Harvard College, receiving a BA in History in 1980 and was a member of the Delphic Club. He was a Research Graduate in Politics at Worcester College, Oxford, from 1980 to 1982, and has an MBA in Finance from Harvard Business School and an MSc in Education from Oxford University.