Ben Obese-Jecty

Benjamin Obese-Jecty (/ˌɒbsiːˈdʒɛktiː/, born September 1979) is a British Conservative politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon since 2024.

Obese-Jecty's father was originally Ghanaian and came to Britain on the SS Apapa as a four year old in 1953. Obese-Jecty is mixed race, with his mother being white English. He was educated at Tiffin School. After attending university, he joined the British Army.

Having attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Obese-Jecty was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment on 11 December 2004, with seniority in that rank from 15 December 2001. He was promoted to lieutenant on the same day, 11 December 2004, with seniority in that rank from 15 December 2003. He moved to the Yorkshire Regiment after his first regiment was merged with others to form it in 2006. He was promoted to captain on 11 June 2007.

Obese-Jecty served a tour of duty in Iraq as a battle casualty replacement after completing his training. From 2009 to 2010, as part of Operation Herrick 11, he served a tour in Afghanistan in an "embedded partnership role mentoring the Afghan National Army's 2nd Kandak" in Sangin, Helmand Province, with 3RIFLES Battlegroup. Over the six-month tour they sustained the heaviest casualties suffered by a British Army battlegroup since the Korean War.

Obese-Jecty moved to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers on 11 December 2012, thereby ending his active military service.

After leaving the British Army in 2012, he moved into banking.

Obese-Jecty spent two years as an academy trustee at Esher Sixth Form College from 2021 to 2023. He was a member of the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committee for the South West region for a three-year term from February 2021 to February 2024.

In the 2019 general election, Obese-Jecty was selected for the Conservative Party in the safe Labour seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington against then Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott. He finished second achieving 11.9% of the vote. During the campaign Obese-Jecty was subjected to racial slurs from other black people because he was standing for the Conservative Party.