Member of Parliament
Julia Lopez
Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster
Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
At a glanceJulia Lopez is a Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, and has represented the seat for 9 years, 1 month. They currently serve as Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. They have cast 420 votes in Commons divisions (73% attendance) and tabled 153 written questions.
Attendance is votes cast as a share of the 575 Commons divisions since the 2024 election; Julia Lopez did not vote in 155. 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 Science, Innovation and Technology.
Current roles
- Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Opposition post · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology since 22 Jul 2025
- Hornchurch and Upminster Representation · Elected 1 time since 4 Jul 2024
- Conservative Party since 8 Jun 2017
Voting record
Voting alignment
Votes most like
-
Bradley Thomas
Conservative
100.0% · 409 of 409 shared votes
-
Rebecca Harris
Conservative
100.0% · 401 of 401 shared votes
-
Greg Smith
Conservative
100.0% · 397 of 397 shared votes
-
Edward Argar
Conservative
100.0% · 396 of 396 shared votes
-
Dr Kieran Mullan
Conservative
100.0% · 389 of 389 shared votes
Votes least like
-
Michael Payne
Labour
0.3% · 1 of 334 shared votes
-
Kerry McCarthy
Labour
0.6% · 2 of 360 shared votes
-
Daniel Zeichner
Labour
0.6% · 2 of 317 shared votes
-
Dan Aldridge
Labour
0.7% · 2 of 280 shared votes
-
Sarah Edwards
Labour
0.7% · 2 of 275 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.
Written questions
Artificial Intelligence: Broadband
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the extent to which existing UK fibre and mobile connectivity infrastructure is sufficient to support the adoption of AI technologies across different se
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
We are committed to ensuring the UK is the leading adopter of AI in the G7, and the Government will look at how regulation, data and access to finance can support adoption including by working closely with sectoral AI Champions to identify new solutions. ...
Artificial Intelligence and Automation: Employment
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the impact of increases in employment costs on businesses’ decisions on whether to substitute labour with (a) automation and (b) AI.
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
The fiscal inheritance demanded tough choices in order to fix our public services, to create long-term growth and investment that supports businesses.Through our plan for small and medium sized businesses we have sought to protect and enable SMEs to prosp...
Advanced Research and Invention Agency: Finance
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the proportion of funding awarded by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency to non UK based companies; and how such funding is expected to deliver be
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
ARIA was established by Parliament to independently fund high-risk, high-reward research. More than 80% of its funding goes to UK-based teams, and where funding goes abroad, it comes with conditions to ensure it delivers long-term benefits for the UK, suc...
Artificial Intelligence: Energy
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the impact of energy prices on the cost and competitiveness of operating AI infrastructure in the UK.
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
Energy prices are a critical factor in the cost and competitiveness of operating AI infrastructure in the UK, but they are one of several key considerations, alongside access to reliable grid capacity, a strong digital services market, a highly developed ...
Sovereign AI Fund: Public Appointments
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what process was followed to appoint Suzanne Ashman as Managing Partner of the UK Sovereign AI Fund.
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
The Managing Partner of the Sovereign AI Fund has been appointed following a three-month, competitive, five-stage recruitment process involving over 60 candidates. She was judged the strongest candidate on merit against the skills and experience required....
Trade Agreements: USA
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Answer of 13 April 2026 to question 126666, what recent progress she has made on the establishment and membership of the ministerial-level working group as set out
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
The United States is our close ally and tech partner, and we are committed to ensuring that bond delivers real benefits for hardworking people on both sides of the Atlantic.We continue to have ministerial-level discussions with the US administration on sc...
Artificial Intelligence: Research
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Answer of 21 April 2026 to Question 128826, when the chips used in the Isambard-AI and Dawn AI Research Resource clusters in (a) July 2024, (b) July 2025 and (c) A
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
The Department does not hold information centrally on the procurement dates of individual chips used within the Isambard AI and Dawn AI Research Resource clusters.Hardware for both systems was procured by delivery partners as part of wider system procurem...
Artificial Intelligence
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her department plans to publish a response to its call for evidence on the AI Growth Lab scheme.
Answer · 5 Jun 2026
The AI Growth Lab would be a cross-economy AI sandbox which would enable responsible AI products and services to be deployed under close supervision in live markets. This will unlock cross-economy growth, drive trust and create a mechanism for dynamic, ev...
Speeches in the chamber
1 Jul 2026 Topical Questions
I think the Secretary of State just said that the eminent professors are wrong. Aside from research spend, one of the core reasons for the budgetary pressures in physics is the ruinous cost of energy under Labour. It is ideology in rese…
1 Jul 2026 Topical Questions
Professor Brian Cox is among the eminent scientists warning about the impact of Government cuts to research on advanced physics and astronomy—a move that he calls “inexplicable”. Meanwhile, the Government are spending millions on projects …
16 Jun 2026 Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill
I thank Members across the House for their contributions to this Bill over many months and for their relentless scrutiny. I have never known a Minister to be in such a rush, with three hours of protected time left. I am grateful to officia…
15 Jun 2026 Social Media Ban for Under-16s
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. As someone infamous for her impatience, waiting for the Prime Minister to opine on something that she genuine cares about must have been as frustrating for her as it has been for us. Tod…
20 May 2026 Topical Questions
There was no clear answer from the Secretary of State. It sounds like Labour is about to trade away our Brexit freedoms on tech regulation, yet tech Ministers have been briefing behind the scenes that we must not lose Britain’s Brexit free…
20 May 2026 Topical Questions
I was born in Harlow, would you believe it, Mr Speaker? Can the Secretary of State guarantee that under Labour’s EU reset, Britain will not align with any EU tech rules, including the AI Act?
11 Mar 2026 UK-based Tech Companies
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) on securing this incredibly important debate. He brings a unique blend of glamour and tech ne…
10 Mar 2026 Technology Sovereignty
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West (Dame Chi Onwurah) on securing such an important debate. It is so well attended, and it is a shame th…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I would not envisage that parents would be responsible for that. There are mechanisms to make sure that platforms would not be permitted to provide accounts to under 16-year-olds and they would have to have highly effective age-assurance t…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I am not seeking to occupy a moral high ground. I am seeking to set out a way towards keeping children under 16 off social media platforms, because trying to legislate for specific different activities is very challenging, as I think we sa…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I am sure that the issue of the functionality list can be explored as time goes by. It is important to point out that this is not a moral panic but a structural problem. Today the Leader of the Opposition gathered a panel of grieving pa…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
We think that the current priority is ensuring that under-16s are taken off harmful social media platforms, but I am sure that there is room for a market to develop, over time, that will not feature negative algorithms and activity, and th…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I thank the hon. Member for that intervention—I went off on a nostalgia trip in my brain, thinking about MSN chatrooms and all the rest of it. That was a time when people were not really aware of the power of the internet, and the predator…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I have set out before what we were trying to achieve with the Online Safety Act and why certain things were in it and others were not. I do not want to go over that again. The consequences of these design features are increasingly visib…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I agree with the hon. Member wholeheartedly. Until now, we have implicitly decided that childhood must simply adapt to an environment that we as adults find totally overwhelming, undermining of our own sense of self and completely irres…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I set out clearly at the beginning of my speech why we cannot support the motion, which is effectively a blank cheque. Notwithstanding the fact that the hon. Member for Twickenham tried to set it out in her speech, nobody actually knows wh…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I appreciate where the hon. Member is coming from. I do not think it is wrong to seek evidence and ask for people’s views, but the Prime Minister should be honest about what he wants to do. The problem is that he has been floating various …
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I respect the hon. Member’s intervention for its politeness, but I do not think the answer is suddenly to encourage all children who are finding it hard to find purposeful and meaningful activities in the real world to retreat to their bed…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was pointing out that the Minister has no manners, but wishes to shout from a sedentary position. I sat listening to him and waiting to see if I could decipher, in his very long and self-regarding diatrib…
24 Feb 2026 Online Harm: Child Protection
I am sure the applicability of the legislation in Scotland is something that can be debated when the Bill comes before the House. To give them credit, many Labour MPs understand the fact that there is an absence of any Government positi…
Source: contributions on parliament.uk.
Full parliamentary career
Government posts
- Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 20 Dec 2023 – 5 Jul 2024
- Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) · Department for Culture, Media and Sport 20 Dec 2023 – 5 Jul 2024
- Minister on Leave (Minister of State) · Department for Culture, Media and Sport 9 May 2023 – 20 Dec 2023
- Minister on Leave (Minister of State) · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 9 May 2023 – 20 Dec 2023
- Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 7 Mar 2023 – 9 May 2023
- Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) · Department for Culture, Media and Sport 7 Feb 2023 – 9 May 2023
- Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) · Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 7 Sep 2022 – 7 Feb 2023
- Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) · Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 16 Sep 2021 – 6 Jul 2022
- Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office) · Cabinet Office 13 Feb 2020 – 16 Sep 2021
Opposition posts
- Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport · Department for Culture, Media and Sport 8 Jul 2024 – 5 Nov 2024
Committee memberships
- Zoological Society of London (Leases) Bill 21 Feb 2024 – 28 Feb 2024
- Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill 3 May 2023 – 9 May 2023
- Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill 2 Mar 2022 – 22 Mar 2022
- European Statutory Instruments Committee 18 Jul 2018 – 6 Nov 2019
- International Trade Committee 11 Sep 2017 – 6 Nov 2019
- Statutory Instruments (Select Committee) 23 Apr 2018 – 8 Oct 2019
- Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee) 23 Apr 2018 – 8 Oct 2019
Previous seats
- Hornchurch and Upminster · Elected 2 times 8 Jun 2017 – 30 May 2024
Expenses
Contact & offices
0207 219 2631
Parliamentary office
House of Commons, SW1A 0AA
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Julia Lopez, answered from official Parliament data.
Who is Julia Lopez?
Julia Lopez is a Member of Parliament representing Hornchurch and Upminster in the House of Commons. See Julia Lopez's official Parliament profile.
Which party does Julia Lopez represent?
Julia Lopez sits as Conservative. See Julia Lopez's official Parliament profile.
Which constituency does Julia Lopez represent?
Julia Lopez is the Member of Parliament for Hornchurch and Upminster. See Julia Lopez's official Parliament profile.
How long has Julia Lopez been an MP?
Julia Lopez has served in the House of Commons for 9 years, 1 month. See Julia Lopez's official Parliament profile.
What registered interests are listed for Julia Lopez?
Julia Lopez has no entries in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. See Julia Lopez's official Parliament profile.
Source: this MP's official Parliament profile. Last updated 26 Jul 2026.