James Cleverly

 ( Cleverly4braintree.com Official Website ) 

After graduation, Cleverly worked for publishing company Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen, and joined Informa as international sales manager in 2002. In 2004, he joined Crimson Publishing as an advertising manager. He became online commercial manager for Caspian Publishing in 2006. The following year, he co-founded web publishing company Point and Fire.

Until 2005, Cleverly was Battery Commander of 266 (Para) Battery Royal Artillery (Volunteers). Cleverly was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 March 2015. He was serving with 100 (Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Artillery, working as a Staff Officer in 1st (UK) Division.

In January 2009, Cleverly was appointed as the Mayor of London's youth ambassador, a newly created role which was seen as being a replacement post for the deputy mayor for young people, a post left vacant after the resignation of Ray Lewis. The creation of the role caused some controversy as it was not filled by a mayoral appointment but by a member of the Assembly whose formal role was to scrutinise the Mayor. The decision was defended because of the precedent set by the appointment of Kit Malthouse as Deputy Mayor for Policing.

In February 2010, Cleverly was appointed as the chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board, replacing Boris Johnson who had stood down. In August 2010, Cleverly posted a tweet saying: "We may be coalition partners but it doesn't stop me thinking Simon Hughes is a dick." This was in response to a suggestion by Hughes, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, that backbench MPs should be able to veto Coalition policies. He later apologised.

In November 2010, Cleverly was re-selected to be the Conservative candidate for Bexley and Bromley at the 2012 London Assembly election, going on to win the seat with 88,482 votes (once again 52.6% of the votes) and a majority of 47,768. After the defeat of Brian Coleman at the election, Cleverly was appointed to the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

In November 2015, Cleverly was criticised for pushing through the closure of 10 fire stations in London after the death of an elderly man in Camden following delays in the arrival of fire crews. In response, Cleverly said: "It is impossible for them to say that with certainty. I think it would be much wiser for the FBU to wait for the details of that fire investigation to come out before they start making these opportunistic allegations."

In January 2016, the Labour Party proposed an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill 2016, which would have required private landlords to make homes which they put up for rent fit for human habitation. According to Parliament's register of interests, Cleverly was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment and who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative Government had responded to the amendment by saying that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it. In March 2016, Cleverly was asked to step down as patron of Advocacy for All, a charity supporting disadvantaged people in South East England. The charity felt he was no longer a suitable person for the role, given that he had voted to cut Employment and Support Allowance (the benefit paid to disabled people who are unable to work).

Cleverly advocated voting for Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum. At the 2017 general election, Cleverly was re-elected with an increased vote share of 62.8% and an increased majority of 18,422. In January 2018 he was appointed as a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party before becoming a junior minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union in April 2019. In October 2018, Cleverly defended Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey over potentially Islamophobic and anti-Hindu comments made in a pamphlet and suggested that black boys were drifting into crime as a result of learning more about faiths other than "their own Christian culture". On 29 May 2019, Cleverly announced he was standing to replace Theresa May in the 2019 Conservative leadership election, before withdrawing from the race on 4 June 2019.

In the 2020 cabinet reshuffle, Cleverly was removed from Johnson's cabinet and appointed Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. He became Minister of State for Middle East, North Africa and North America in December 2021, before being appointed Minister of State for Europe and North America in February 2022. In September 2020, he expressed concern about a "looming" famine in Yemen.

In March 2021, Cleverly described the situation in Yemen as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In March 2022, he said that attempts to compare Saudi Arabia to Russia were "ridiculously distasteful", describing Saudi Arabia as an "incredibly influential country in the region" and a "significant oil and gas producer." On 7 July 2022, Cleverly succeeded Michelle Donelan as Secretary of State for Education, a post that he held for almost two months.

Cleverly endorsed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. As Johnson ended up not standing, Cleverly then endorsed Rishi Sunak. Sunak re-appointed him to Sunak ministry as Foreign Secretary on 25 October 2022. That same month, due to doubts raised that British homosexual football fans would be safe at the 2022 Football World Cup taking place in Qatar, Cleverly suggested that they should show "a little bit of flex and compromise", adding that he thought it was "important when you're a visitor to a country that you respect the culture of your host nation." He described Qatar as "an Islamic country with a very different set of cultural norms to our own those". Labour called his advice "shockingly tone-deaf", due to the fact that gay activity is illegal in Qatar and that Cleverly had known that if gay people expressed their homosexuality openly in Qatar they would be arrested. Earlier in 2022, LGBT organisations stated that "progress has been slow" in attempting to ensure the safety of LGBT football fans with FIFA in Qatar – and additionally that reassurances from Qatar had "not been adequate". In Qatar, sex between men carries a penalty of up to 7 years in prison.

In May 2022, the country's emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said that he believed criticism about Qatar being chosen to host the World Cup came from "people who cannot accept the idea that an Arab Muslim country would host a tournament like the World Cup". Sunak's spokesperson distanced themselves from Cleverly's comments, saying that fans should not have to "compromise who they are", as well as that "Qatar's policies are not those of the UK Government and not ones we would endorse". In November 2022, Cleverly stated that his actions were "about ensuring that the English and Welsh fans going over to enjoy the football were safe and happy and that they enjoyed themselves whilst watching the tournament." In December 2022, despite human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia, Cleverly called Saudi Arabia a strategic partner. In the same month, Cleverly met his Norwegian counterpart, Anniken Huitfeldt, to discuss continued military cooperation and attended the annual Christmas tree lighting.

In January 2023, Cleverly again met Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, in Washington, DC, to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, recent events in Iran following the anti-regime protests occurring there among other issues, as well as to reaffirm the UK's special relationship with the United States. Cleverly was criticised by some Conservative MPs, including Liz Truss, for refusing to reclassify China as a "threat" in response to the Chinese Government's aggressive foreign policy and its human rights abuses of the Uyghurs Muslim community. He called China a potential "partner for good".

On 19 July 2023, Cleverly made a public statement following his being mooted as a possible successor to the departing Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace. Cleverly asked Prime Minister Sunak to leave him in his current position, because he said he really likes the job. He stated that if he was removed from his post, "you will see nail marks on the parquet floor in my office". In August 2023, Cleverly made his first visit to China as the first UK Government minister to visit the country since 2018. The trip was reportedly to promote bilateral trade and climate change policy and challenge China's response to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

On 13 September 2023, he met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Ankara and stated that Turkey is an "indispensable partner" to the UK and "has truly significant commitments to NATO." Cleverly expressed support for Israel during the Gaza war. On 11 October 2023, he visited Israel "to show solidarity to Israeli people". He rejected calls for a ceasefire but supported "humanitarian pauses" to provide aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.

On 23 December 2023, Cleverly faced calls to resign for joking about spiking his wife's drink with Rohypnol, a date rape drug to ensure that she would "never realise there are better men out there”. A spokesperson said that Cleverly "apologised" for what he had intended "to be an ironic joke".

On 23 July 2024, he announced he was running in the leadership election to be the new Conservative Party leader. As part of his campaign he pledged to reform the party including Conservative Campaign Headquarters. In the first a round of voting, Cleverly came third with 22 votes, but fell down to 21 votes in the second round, coming joint third with Tom Tugendhat. On the third round, however, Cleverly jumped to first place with 39 votes, after a strong performance at the 2024 Party Conference where he argued that the Conservative Party should become "more normal". However, Cleverly was eliminated in the final round of MP voting with 37 votes. This was widely considered a shock result after his strong performance in the third round. The Independent has alleged that Robert Jenrick's campaign launched a whipping operation in order to poach Cleverly's supporters, convincing those who disliked Kemi Badenoch to support Jenrick in order to keep her out of the final round. This loss of votes led Cleverly to be knocked out, allowing Badenoch and Jenrick to go to the Member's vote which Kemi Badenoch won, leading her to become the Leader of the Conservative Party. The day before the result was announced, Cleverly revealed that he would not take a frontbench role in either Badenoch or Jenrick's Shadow Cabinet, instead choosing to return to the backbenches.

In April 2025, Cleverly refused to rule out running for leader again, and urged his party to stop “obsessing” over Reform UK. Later in June, Cleverly criticized Badenoch’s plans to ditch net zero targets, insisting that achieving climate goals and simultaneous economic growth was possible. His opinion differed from the official Conservative Party position. Cleverly voted against the assisted dying bill in June 2025, citing the number of medical organizations that were neutral on the principle of assisted dying itself while simultaneously being opposed to specific measures in the bill.

In July 2025, Cleverly was appointed Shadow Housing Secretary in the shadow cabinet reshuffle by Kemi Badenoch.

Cleverly identifies as an atheist and a secular humanist, remarking during the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill debate that "I do not come at this from a religious point of view – I am an atheist; I am a humanist." His cousin Chris Cleverly is a lawyer and businessman. He has been a fan of the miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000; in 2022 he had a private YouTube channel dedicated to painting the game's miniatures.

He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 100 Regiment Royal Artillery Army Reserve, his old regiment, on 15 July 2025.

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