Blake Stephenson was elected at the 2024 General Election on Thursday 4th July 2024 and is the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire. He won the seat back from Labour during what was a very difficult election for the Conservative Party nationally.
Early life
Blake’s grandfathers were coalminers in County Durham and South Yorkshire. His father was an infantry soldier between 1972 to 1994 serving extensively in Northern Ireland and Germany, before working on a farm in Hampshire where Blake grew up in an agricultural tied cottage.
From the age of five - during his father’s military service - Blake attended Lime House School, a boarding school near Carlisle. He was then educated from aged 11 at his local comprehensive school, Testbourne Community School, in Whitchurch, Hampshire, and at Peter Symonds’ College, in Winchester, Hampshire.
Blake attended 1213 (Andover) Squadron of the Air Training Corp between the ages of 13 and 17 and was an RAF Flying Scholar. From a young age Blake had aspirations to be a pilot.
Instead, Blake read Industrial Relations with Politics at the University of Kent, Canterbury, before studying Law at the University of Law in Guildford.
Blake was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2007 by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, following completion of his Bar Exams at the Inns of Court School of Law (now The City Law School).
Professional life
Blake is a barrister but instead of practicing the law he forged a career in The City of London specialising in financial services regulation – specifically within wholesale markets infrastructure – and before entering Parliament had a 16-year career spanning the Swiss Stock Exchange, the Financial Services Authority, Nasdaq Inc., Tradeweb Inc., and the London Stock Exchange Group.
Political career
Blake was first elected in 2023 to represent the parishes of Gravenhurst, Meppershall and Shillington on Central Bedfordshire Council. His term as a councillor end in May 2027.
He was elected to the House of Commons on his first attempt in the 2024 General Election - bucking the national trend and winning Mid Bedfordshire back from Labour - and now serves the constituency he has lived since 2015.
In Parliament, Blake serves on both the Environmental Audit Committee (8) and the Public Accounts Committee (12). He is involved in several All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) including the East of England APPG, the Pensions and Growth APPG and the APPG on Pubs. (9) And in November 2024, Blake was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Mel Stride (10).
Blake is an active backbench Parliamentarian and advocate for Mid Bedfordshire, with contributions in his first-year spanning healthcare, welfare spending, the economy, business and trade, pensions, local government reform, planning and infrastructure, rail services, tourism, aviation, sentencing, and immigration.
On 10th July 2025, Blake introduced his first Private Members Bill to the House of Commons to improve the consideration of flooding in England’s planning system and to make internal drainage boards (IDBs) statutory consultees in certain circumstances. The Bill also provides for a presumption against development where one of the lead local flood authority, Environment Agency (EA), or the IDB consider that development would increase flood risk for existing properties and follows significant flooding throughout Bedfordshire during the autumn of 2024. (11) A government minister objected to the Bill on 17th October 2025. (12)
(8) https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/62/environmental-audit-committee/membership/
(9) https://members.parliament.uk/member/5100/appgofficerroles
(11) Live updates: Flooding across Bedfordshire and the East of England - BBC News
(12) https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3994
(13) https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/membership/