Julia Lopez (politician)

Julia Louise Lopez (née Dockerill; born June 1984) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornchurch and Upminster since 2017. She has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since July 2024.

Before entering the House of Commons, she served as a local councillor on the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, and a parliamentary aide. Lopez previously served as Minister of State for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure from September 2021 to July 2022, and again from September 2022 to February 2023.

Early life and education
Julia Dockerill was born in June 1984 in Harlow and grew up in Stansted Mountfitchet with her two sisters. Her mother was a primary school teacher and her father was a businessman. After Bentfield Primary School, she attended Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, before going to Queens' College, Cambridge, where she studied Social and Political Sciences.

Political career
Dockerill was a researcher in the parliamentary office of then-MP for Cities of London and Westminster, Mark Field. She became his chief of staff and co-authored two of his books Between the Crashes and The Best of Times. Dockerill has also worked as a ghostwriter. Whilst Dockerill was Field's parliamentary aide she was photographed in November 2016 carrying confidential notes on a Brexit-related meeting in Downing Street which indicated that the UK would not stay in the single market, and would not seek a transitional deal with the EU. In 2014, Dockerill was elected a councillor for St Katharine's and Wapping Ward on Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.

In government
At the snap 2017 general election, Dockerill was elected to Parliament as MP for Hornchurch and Upminster with 60.2% of the vote and a majority of 17,723.

She voted against then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019. In the indicative votes on 27 March, she voted against a referendum on a potential withdrawal agreement. In October, Lopez voted for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Lopez was re-elected as MP for Hornchurch and Upminster at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 65.8% and an increased majority of 23,308.

A Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from February 2020 to September 2021, Lopez was appointed Minister of State for Media and Data in the 2021 British cabinet reshuffle.

On 6 July 2022, Lopez resigned from government, citing Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow Ministers Kemi Badenoch, Neil O'Brien, Lee Rowley and Alex Burghart. She then supported Kemi Badenoch in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

In September 2022, Prime Minister Liz Truss reappointed her to government as a Minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In October 2022, she was reappointed by Truss' successor as PM Rishi Sunak.

In April 2023, it was announced that Lopez was to take maternity leave from her ministerial posts, under the terms of the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Act 2021, to be temporarily replaced by Sir John Whittingdale.

In opposition
At the 2024 general election, Lopez was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 32.5% and a decreased majority of 1,943. Lopez was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport in Rishi Sunak's caretaker Shadow Cabinet.

Personal life
Lopez married Lorenzo Lopez in September 2017. The couple have two children.