Maria Miller
Maria Miller
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Maria Miller

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Maria Miller

Dame Maria Frances Miller DBE (née Lewis; born 26 March 1964) is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Basingstoke from 2005 until the 2024 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2012 to 2014 under Prime Minister David Cameron.

In opposition Miller served as the Shadow Minister for Education from 2005 to 2006, Shadow Minister for Family Welfare from 2006 to 2007 and Shadow Minister for Families from 2007 to 2010.

She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Disabled People) from 2010 to 2012 and later served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2012 to 2014. She resigned from the Cabinet in April 2014 after reports she had over-claimed expenses.

In June 2015 Miller was elected as Chair of the newly established Women and Equalities Select Committee. She was nominated for the position by MPs across the House in 2017 and was reelected unopposed. In 2019, Miller announced she would step down from the role.

In January 2025, Miller was appointed the first independent chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

The daughter of John Lewis, she was born in Wolverhampton, but was brought up in Bridgend, South Wales. She was educated at the Brynteg School before reading Economics at the London School of Economics from where she graduated in 1985. She joined Grey Advertising Ltd as an advertising executive, leaving in 1990 to become a marketing manager with Texaco. She rejoined Greys in 1994 and served for five years as a director, before becoming a director for the Rowland Group in 1999 for four years.

Miller joined the Conservative Party in 1983 and contested Wolverhampton North East at the 2001 general election but was defeated by the sitting Labour MP, Ken Purchase. She retained formal links with the local Conservative Association for some time thereafter; she also chaired the Wimbledon Association for a year from 2002.

Miller was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election, for the Basingstoke constituency, following the retirement of its former MP, the Conservative Andrew Hunter, who had defected to the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party before he stepped down. In Parliament she served for a year from 2005 as a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee.

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