Lia Nici

Lia Nici-Townend[1][2] (born 1 August 1969) is a British Conservative Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby since the 2019 general election.[3]

Lia Nici

MP
Member of Parliament
for Great Grimsby
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byMelanie Onn
Majority7,331 (22.2%)
Personal details
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
OccupationPolitician
WebsiteOfficial website

She was formerly a media studies lecturer at Grimsby Institute, and executive producer of Estuary TV from 2013–2018,[4] where she also lists herself as having been CEO of Estuary TV following the dissolving of the CIC company by the Grimsby Institute and Estuary TV becoming, in effect, a department of the college.

Early life and career

Nici was a college lecturer for 20 years,[5] including in the Media Studies department at what is now the Grimsby Institute, a further-education college. She was head of East Coast Media at the Institute from 2004.

She was the Executive Producer of Estuary TV, a Grimsby-based Community Interest Company, from 2013 until the company was dissolved.[4] Following its dissolution, she continued to act as CEO of "Estuary TV" (now a department of the Institute, who had owned and dissolved the CIC). Nici has listed herself as having been self-employed since September 2018.[4]

Political career

Elections

After failing to be selected in Grimsby[6] and Scunthorpe,[2] Nici stood as the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Kingston upon Hull North in 2017, losing to sitting Labour MP Diana Johnson by 14,322 votes.[7]

In May 2018, she was elected as a councillor for the Scartho ward of North East Lincolnshire Council.[5]

In August 2019, Nici was selected as the Conservative candidate for Great Grimsby for the 2019 snap general election.[8] She won the seat with 54.9% of the vote and a margin of 7,331 votes over Labour, who had held the seat for 74 years; defeating the sitting Labour MP Melanie Onn, who had represented Great Grimsby since Austin Mitchell's retirement in 2015.[3]

Background

Nici was for several years the Executive Producer of Estuary TV, a local television channel incorporated as a ‘Community Interest Company’, a registered entity intended to be run for community benefit.[9] The channel was criticised for receiving £300,000 from the BBC under a scheme to meet quotas of local news content in return for subsidies. Data from 2014 showed that its programmes were seen by fewer than 200 people, some having no viewers at all. The BBC refused to reveal how many of Estuary TV's programmes it actually broadcast.[10]

Following Estuary TV CIC's dissolution by owners the Grimsby Institute, Nici continued as executive producer of "Estuary TV", now a department of the Institute, and on 8 May 2018 confirmed herself in the register of NE Lincolnshire Councillors' interests as being the "CEO" of Estuary TV. Just under five years after becoming a figurehead for the government's new local television programme,[11] the channel's licence was transferred to local television network That's TV,[12] finally being replaced by That's Humber in October 2018.[13]

Nici voted to remain in the European Union in 2016,[14] She subsequently became a supporter of leaving the EU and supported her party's approach to the exit process.[15] In December 2019, she stated that the reason the UK had not left the EU was "a failure of people who live in northern towns like Grimsby who have Labour MPs who have consistently voted against the democratic vote in their constituencies."[16]

Parliamentary career

In March 2020, she became a member of the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons.[17]

In May 2020, Nici supported Prime Minister Boris Johnson's refusal to take action against his chief adviser Dominic Cummings after the latter breached COVID-19 lockdown regulations, maintaining only that it was possible "he may have committed a minor breach", and should have apologised.[18]

In August 2020, Nici was one of 25 Conservative MPs and peers to sign a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel urging "stronger enforcement" against people crossing the English Channel in small boats, considering it to be "strikingly clear that, rather than a 'hostile environment', invading migrants have been welcomed".[19]

In October 2020, Nici was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, making her part of the payroll vote. Later that month, however, after being absent from voting on a Labour motion calling for the extension of free school meals into the school holidays, Nici said that she would have voted against the government had she been present.[20]

During the United Kingdom's second national lockdown in November 2020, Nici self-isolated after attending a meeting in 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister and several other Conservative MPs including Lee Anderson, who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.[21] Despite being pictured in close proximity with the Prime Minister, indoors and without a mask, Nici maintained that "we did everything we can" to remain safe.[22]

References
  1. "Members Sworn". Hansard.parliament.uk. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  2. "Exclusive: Shortlists for Scunthorpe and Birmingham Selly Oak selections tonight". Conservative Home. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. "Great Grimsby parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  4. "Lia Nici". Linkedin.com. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  5. "Who is Grimsby's new Conservative MP Lia Nici?". Grimsby Telegraph. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  6. "Exclusive: First Conservative candidate shortlists revealed". Conservative Home. 23 April 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  7. "2017 General Election – Kingston upon Hull North constituency". Whocanivotefor.co.uk. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  8. "Conservative Party selects Scartho councillor to contest Grimsby seat at next General Election". Grimsby Telegraph. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  9. "Estuary CIC Company number 06433821". Companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  10. "Should BBC money have been given to Estuary TV?". Grimsby Telegraph. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  11. "Local TV revolution begins in Grimsby". BBC. 26 November 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  12. Estuary TV channel to close - a516digital, archived from the original on 2 August 2018, retrieved 24 June 2020
  13. @ThatsTVHumber (5 October 2018). "Welcome to your local TV station .. Great news.. We have officially launched! You can tune in now on Freeview channel 7!👏🏻👏🏻" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. "This is what happened when The People's Vote came to meet in Grimsby". Grimsby Telegraph. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  15. "Great Grimsby general election candidate interviews: The Conservatives' Lia Nici". Grimsby Telegraph. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  16. "Conservative election candidate Lia Nici says people in 'northern towns like Grimsby' to blame for Brexit failures". Grimsby Telegraph. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  17. "Voting Record — Lia Nici MP, Great Grimsby (25865)". Public Whip. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  18. "Statement on Dominic Cummings". Lia Nici. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  19. "Immigration minister heads to Paris amid Tory pressure over migrant crossings". PoliticsHome. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  20. "Free School Meals". Lia Nici. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  21. @lia_nici (16 November 2020). "I have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace following a work meeting last week with Lee Anderson MP and the Prime Minister. As a result I will be self-isolating in line with the rules. I currently have no symptoms and will be working from home" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. "16/11/2020 David Burns". Mid-morning on BBC Radio Humberside. 16 November 2020. BBC. BBC Radio Humberside. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Melanie Onn		 Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby
2019–present		 Incumbent
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