Member of Parliament
Victoria Atkins
Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
At a glanceVictoria Atkins is a Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle, and has represented the seat for 11 years, 2 months. They currently serve as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. They have cast 335 votes in Commons divisions (58% attendance), tabled 66 written questions and registered 8 financial interests.
Attendance is votes cast as a share of the 575 Commons divisions since the 2024 election; Victoria Atkins did not vote in 240. A rebellion is a vote against the way most of their own party voted; free votes, where no party line applies, are left out.
Party-loyalty figures are our own analysis of the official voting records (recorded votes only; they do not describe the formal whip). How we work this out.
Biography
She currently undertakes the role of Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Current roles
- Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Opposition post · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since 5 Nov 2024
- Louth and Horncastle Representation · Elected 1 time since 4 Jul 2024
- Conservative Party since 7 May 2015
Voting record
Voting alignment
Votes most like
-
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst
Conservative
100.0% · 316 of 316 shared votes
-
Kit Malthouse
Conservative
100.0% · 307 of 307 shared votes
-
Dr Luke Evans
Conservative
100.0% · 305 of 305 shared votes
-
James Cartlidge
Conservative
100.0% · 296 of 296 shared votes
-
Mark Garnier
Conservative
100.0% · 292 of 292 shared votes
Votes least like
-
Angela Rayner
Labour
0.0% · 0 of 149 shared votes
-
Bridget Phillipson
Labour
0.0% · 0 of 134 shared votes
-
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan
Labour
0.0% · 0 of 114 shared votes
-
Nick Thomas-Symonds
Labour
0.0% · 0 of 107 shared votes
-
Shabana Mahmood
Labour
0.0% · 0 of 80 shared votes
Alignment figures are our own analysis of the official voting records (recorded votes only; they do not describe the formal whip). How we work this out.
Register of financial interests
From the official Register; shown as registered.
Gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources6
- Natural History Museum - £382.00 (registered 2 Jul 2026)
- Natural History Museum - £296.00 (registered 2 Jul 2026)
- Ascot Racecourse - £590.00 (registered 1 Jul 2026)
- Jockey Club Racecourses Limited - £560.00 (registered 19 Mar 2026)
- National Farmers' Union - £960.00 (registered 19 Mar 2026)
- Agricultural Engineers Association - £540.00 (registered 3 Nov 2025)
Miscellaneous2
- Member of the Connected Coast Board, a joint board for the Mablethorpe and Skegness Towns Fund. This is an unpaid role. (registered 28 Jan 2020)
- Barrister, currently not practising. (registered 6 Jun 2015)
Written questions
HM Coastguard: Lincolnshire
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans her Department has to maintain operational resilience of HM Coastguard on the Lincolnshire coastline in the context of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s announcement regarding the future model for
Answer · 18 Jun 2026
Public safety remains our priority and careful consideration was given to the options for a revised operating model. The legal position, the operational implications, and the wider organisational impact have all been looked at in detail, as well as the vi...
HM Coastguard: Voluntary Work
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the financial savings of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s decision to introduce a revised volunteer model for Coastguard Rescue Officers.
Answer · 18 Jun 2026
Public safety remains our priority and careful consideration was given to the options for a revised operating model. The legal position, the operational implications, and the wider organisational impact have all been looked at in detail, as well as the vi...
Peatlands: Controlled Burning
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has assessed the potential impact of the Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 on the number of wildfires, including their incide
Answer · 2 Feb 2026
Burning is damaging to peatlands and can increase their long-term vulnerability to wildfires, while wetter, healthy-functioning peatlands are more resilient to the impacts of wildfire. In developing the Amendments to The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (En...
Agriculture: Water
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, what estimate she has made of the average annual cost of complying with th
Answer · 12 Feb 2026
An environmental permit would require regulated businesses to apply measures to reduce pollution. The cost of complying with a permit would depend on which pollution measures they would be required to adopt, which would depend largely on the type of farm ...
Agriculture: Water
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, what estimate she has made of the number of cattle farms that could be imp
Answer · 9 Feb 2026
Government announced its intention to develop options for consultation on extension of environmental permitting to dairy and intensive beef farms through the Environmental Improvement Plan published in December last year. The Government is looking to deve...
Water
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled A New Vision for Water, published on 20 January 2026, if she plans to publish the Transition Plan on a sitting day of the House
Answer · 4 Feb 2026
The Transition Plan will be published in 2026. It will set clear direction on priorities, sequencing, and engagement, giving the sector confidence as reforms begin and ahead of the introduction of an upcoming water bill.
Water
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many of the 88 recommendations proposed in the independent report entitled Independent Water Commission: review of the water sector, published in July 2025, are included in her Dep
Answer · 29 Jan 2026
Defra thoroughly reviewed the Independent Water Commission’s final report in its entirety, and the White Paper sets out our overall response to the Commission’s recommendations. This Government’s priority is to deliver the best possible outcomes for custo...
Water Delivery Taskforce
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on which dates the Water Delivery Taskforce has met.
Answer · 29 Jan 2026
Defra has established a Water Delivery Taskforce to ensure that water companies deliver on their planned investments to provide water and wastewater capacity. It ensures that water availability and wastewater capacity are not a constraint on growth. The W...
Early day motions
| 13 Oct 2025 | Agriculture | 25 sig. |
Speeches in the chamber
9 Jul 2026 Topical Questions
Oh dear. This may be the last time the Secretary of State gets to give such an inadequate answer to what is a reasonable question about her grip on her Department. But let us look at Labour’s wider chaos. After two years of record-breaking…
9 Jul 2026 Topical Questions
In recent weeks, DEFRA’s quangos have made headlines: the Environment Agency is failing to prosecute waste criminals, instead going after virtuous volunteers who are cleaning up the rivers for it; Natural England is demanding more madcap f…
24 Jun 2026 Farming Road Map and Profitability Review
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement, and I repeat my sincere thanks to Baroness Batters for her thorough report. The Secretary of State presents a document for farming for the next 25 years, but this Govern…
16 Jun 2026 Thames Water
First, I echo the Secretary of State’s comments in remembrance of her dear colleague Jo Cox. Her loss was felt across the House and across party political lines, and I send all of our very best wishes to her loved ones and friends. I th…
4 Jun 2026 Topical Questions
Sorry—the Government have just published the documentation for a scheme that starts in the three weeks’ time, but the Secretary of State cannot tell us how much of her budget is being spent on it. Then again, we know that Labour is the par…
4 Jun 2026 Topical Questions
May I, too, wish Sir David Attenborough a belated happy 100th birthday and congratulate Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir on winning “Britain’s Got Talent”? They are both best in show. After a year of dither, delay and record farm closures, the …
14 Apr 2026 Crime and Policing Bill
He is a shadow Minister.
19 Mar 2026 Topical Questions
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Secretary of State announced yet another supposedly significant policy this week—the land use framework—outside Parliament, and has not offered an oral statement so that Ministers may be scrutinised. Th…
19 Mar 2026 Topical Questions
And the Secretary of State has had this matter sitting on her desk for 18 months. Instead of dealing with it, we have had 18 months of damaging the rural economy, damaging rural businesses and hurting rural families under this Government. …
19 Mar 2026 Topical Questions
Consumers and farmers believe that a Union Jack flag or a Made in Britain label should mean that the food was made or grown in the United Kingdom. We Conservatives, led by my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Stev…
9 Mar 2026 Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing
I warmly welcome the Minister to her place. I should declare that I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of three, so I cannot begin to imagine the pain that Mr and Mrs Story, and other affected families who are in the Public Gall…
5 Feb 2026 Topical Questions
For goodness’ sake, if the Government are still negotiating, the Secretary of State needs to deal with the matters I have raised. It is not just the farming sector that they are damaging; it is the entire rural economy. Rural and coastal b…
5 Feb 2026 Topical Questions
The EU reset deal is predicted to slash around a third of the Government’s farming budget from farm profits in its first year, cause higher food prices and lower food production, and sink the UK fishing industry. As the Prime Minister’s au…
21 Jan 2026 Water White Paper
I thank the Secretary of State for an advance copy of her statement. Indeed, I welcome the Secretary of State to the Chamber. It is not often that she puts in an appearance, from the publication of the Minette Batters report to the animal …
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
Very much so. If the hon. Gentleman comes to the county of Lincolnshire, he will see the superb operation that Lincolnshire police did throughout that time to tackle hare coursing, with the support of Home Office Ministers. We have to be c…
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
As I say, we urge the Government to pause and work with the shooting community. We all understand the intent behind the proposals, but the Government have to get them right, because they could have grave ramifications. Trail hunting, wh…
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend and county neighbour. What Labour does not seem to understand is that rural areas are not against building more homes and infrastructure. They just want them in the right places, and for the…
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
I will make some progress, because I know how popular this debate is. Labour’s choices will scar our landscapes and nature forever. The Government are reversing our bold commitments to nature with another U-turn on biodiversity net gai…
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
That is exactly right, and the difference is that Conservative Members are used to running businesses and working in the private sector, whereas Labour Members have no idea and no clue. It is not just our market towns and villages that …
7 Jan 2026 Rural Communities
My right hon. Friend and county neighbour of course understands all the challenges facing our rural communities, and I think we are all wondering why, in the midst of a cost of living crisis, when very worrying events are happening oversea…
Source: contributions on parliament.uk.
Full parliamentary career
Government posts
- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care · Department of Health and Social Care 13 Nov 2023 – 5 Jul 2024
- Financial Secretary (HM Treasury) · HM Treasury 27 Oct 2022 – 13 Nov 2023
- Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) · Ministry of Justice 16 Sep 2021 – 6 Jul 2022
- Minister for Afghan resettlement · Ministry of Justice 17 Sep 2021 – 8 Mar 2022
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) · Home Office 9 Nov 2017 – 16 Sep 2021
- Minister for Women · Government Equalities Office 16 Jan 2018 – 13 Feb 2020
Opposition posts
- Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care · Department of Health and Social Care 8 Jul 2024 – 5 Nov 2024
Committee memberships
- Finance (No. 2) Bill 10 May 2023 – 18 May 2023
- Women and Equalities Committee 25 Oct 2022 – 15 Nov 2022
- Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 12 May 2021 – 24 Jun 2021
- Home Affairs Committee 8 Jul 2015 – 31 Oct 2016
- Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (Joint Committee) 5 Nov 2015 – 11 Feb 2016
Previous seats
- Louth and Horncastle · Elected 3 times 7 May 2015 – 30 May 2024
Expenses
Contact & offices
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Victoria Atkins, answered from official Parliament data.
Who is Victoria Atkins?
Victoria Atkins is a Member of Parliament representing Louth and Horncastle in the House of Commons. See Victoria Atkins's official Parliament profile.
Which party does Victoria Atkins represent?
Victoria Atkins sits as Conservative. See Victoria Atkins's official Parliament profile.
Which constituency does Victoria Atkins represent?
Victoria Atkins is the Member of Parliament for Louth and Horncastle. See Victoria Atkins's official Parliament profile.
How long has Victoria Atkins been an MP?
Victoria Atkins has served in the House of Commons for 11 years, 2 months. See Victoria Atkins's official Parliament profile.
What registered interests are listed for Victoria Atkins?
Victoria Atkins has 8 entries in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. See Victoria Atkins's official Parliament profile.
Source: this MP's official Parliament profile. Last updated 26 Jul 2026.