Kevin Hollinrake

Kevin Paul Hollinrake^[1] is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Thirsk and Malton since May 2015.^[2]

Hollinrake was born and brought up in North Yorkshire. He attended Easingwold School and studied physics at Sheffield Polytechnic.^[3] Hollinrake is married and has four children.^[4]

Business

When he left university in 1985 he went to work for Prudential, where he learnt the property business. Then he co-founded Hunters estate agency in York in 1992. The agency had grown to over 150 branches across the country by 2015, with Hollinrake holding a 15% stake in the company.^[5] Hunters Property was admitted to trading on AIM in July 2015 with a market capitalisation of £16.9m.^[6] Hunter's techie approach to mobile purchasing and browsing of online properties signals intentions of a highly market aggressive firm intent of applying new innovation towards grabbing market share. These moves have been signalled by more serious moves into the highly competitive markets of south-east; a long way from the native north of England.^[7] In February 2015, the company issued an IPO (initial public offering) for new investors to raise £2.5 m for capital investment.^[8]

In 2008 he held found Vizzihome. Understanding the flexibility of internet technologies, he set up the innovatory search engine Shoptility.com, based in London, where he was the Chairman from November 2013.

MP since general election, 2015

On arrival in the House of Commons, Hollinrake had already turned down the option to fight four other constituencies before settling on the safe seat of Thirsk and Malton in the county of North Yorkshire.^[9] He has rewarded this popularity by voting with the payroll vote on media-oriented issues. In the popular mind Trident is an emotive issue, he voted for it. He has also supported welfare cuts in full (except on an occasion abstaining for absence); on at 5 pm on 5 July he asked whether Tax Credits (in the process of repeal of 1999 Act) were: “a predictably negative impact on work incentives”?^[10] He has continually given voice in favour of an EU referendum.^[11] He hinted at backbench credentials when thanking a Labour member for the chance to speak on rural broadband rollouts. "One of our roles as parliamentarians must be to create a level playing field" and vouchers worth £3000 as added incentivisation to accept a scheme worth £1.7 billion by 2017; ^[12]

It was reported in September 2015 that the NHS was in financial crisis, unable to pay its bills, while still providing care.^[13] It was also estimated that the service needed 6,000 new doctors. Local protest groups railed, even in Conservative constituencies against the further smalltown (to use an Americanisation) closure of cottage hospitals.^[14] “I am most concerned about the temporary closure of the Lambert Hospital in Thirsk", he wrote on his site, on 15 September 2015. A bred Yorkshireman, Hollinrake is a strong supporter of David Cameron's 'Northern Powerhouse' idea, which aims to link the north of England more closely to markets in the south; making it easier to travel, exchange and do business.^[15]

In May Hollinrake made it clear that he would be writing to Amber Rudd, the Secretary of State for Energy, to declare support for "safe and discreet" fracking. In compensation local communities in site areas would receive £100,000 and 1% of all revenues as an incentive to approve of the investment. The American-style corporate tactics were deplored by Mrs Caroline Lucas MP, but Hollinrake's concerns were about smoothing the bill with his constituents. In his maiden speech^[16] on 4 June, he made much about the "vibrancy" of the economy without sacrificing rights for the poor. But with a background in estate agency and, a leave on farming, his predecessor's occupation, he realised the ambition of development transfers, and the language of social job creation.^[17] Mr Hollinrake leaves in September 2015 on a fact-finding mission to Pennsylvania, USA investigating the effects of shale gas industry on the environment, economy, health, education and property.^[18] In alluding to the concept of "metro mayor" Kevin Hollinrake reveals that he is representative of the new breed of modern Conservative business-centric mover and shaper prepared to stir up controversy in the name of expansionism, lacking, as he does a concern for the environment; a fact he implicitly acknowledged in paying tribute to Anne McIntosh MP as being in an agricultural interest.

Likeness

• Tuesday 6 November 2007
• Tuesday 14 August 2014

References

External links

• Official website