Sir Gary Nicholas Streeter (born 2 October 1955) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for over 30 years, representing South West Devon from its creation in 1997 to 2024, and previously holding its main predecessor seat of Plymouth Sutton, from which the majority its electorate was taken,[1] between 1992 and 1997. During the Fifty-fifth Parliament, Streeter had been the longest-serving MP representing a constituency in the county of Devon.
Early life
Streeter attended Tiverton Grammar School, Tiverton, Devon, where he was head boy from 1972 to 1973, then King's College London, where he gained a first-class honours law degree. From 1984 to 1998, he was a solicitor and partner at Foot and Bowden (now called Foot Anstey) in Plymouth, where he specialised in company and employment law. In 1998 Streeter was fined £1,000 by the Law Society for conduct unbecoming a solicitor due to a conflict of interest when dealing with a business merger in 1991 while with Foot Bowden Limited.[2]
Streeter's initial political experience was as a councillor on Plymouth City Council, where he represented Mount Gould ward from 1986 to 1992. Having been elected to serve as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in January 1988 he defected to the Conservative Party.[3] Reflecting on his career in an interview with the Plymouth Evening Herald years later, Streeter attributed his initial party allegiance to the influence of David Owen, then SDP leader and MP for Plymouth Devonport, but explained that by 1988 he had come to "believe strongly in individual responsibility, in the family, the nation, enterprise. I thought to myself 'I am a natural Conservative, what am I doing in the SDP?' So I crossed over."[3]
In March 2012, Streeter was one of three MPs who signed a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority asking it to reverse its decision to stop the Christian group "Healing on the Streets of Bath" from making explicit claims that prayer can heal. The letter called for the ASA to provide "indisputable scientific evidence" that faith healing did not work. Another signer, Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats, later wrote that the letter was not "well-worded" and that he should not have signed it "as it was written".[5]
In 2013, Streeter referred to the "familiar glint in the swivelled eyes of the purists" within his own party in an article attacking the divisions caused by those activists who were calling for a referendum on EU membership.[6] The remark followed allegations that senior members of the government had characterised Eurosceptic activists as "swivel-eyed loons". Streeter argued that the result of party infighting over the issue would be "a Labour-led government bend[ing] the knee to Brussels".[6]
In December 2018, it was announced that Streeter would receive a knighthood in the 2019 New Year Honours List.[9] Streeter told the Press Association that he hoped his honour reflected, in part, his work over the past decade as chairman of the all-party group on Christians in Parliament and supporting new MPs once they had arrived at Westminster.[10]
Streeter was reelected at the 2019 general election with an increased majority. He briefly acted as Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means at the start of the 2019 Parliament. On 2 February 2022, Streeter announced that he had submitted a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Committee, seeking a motion of no confidence in the prime minister, Boris Johnson, stating that "I cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British Public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street".[12][13]
Streeter married Janet Stevens in 1978 in Barnstaple; the couple have a son and daughter, live near Plympton in Devon. He is a committed Christian.[18]
