Jacob Young (politician)


Jacob Young is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament for Redcar in the 2019 general election. He is the first Conservative MP to represent the constituency.

Early life and career

Young was born and grew up in a working-class family in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. He has six siblings. He attended Macmillan Academy. Young then studied at the Redcar & Cleveland College and the TTE Technical Institute. After this, he obtained a Higher National Certificate in chemical engineering at Teesside University. While at university, he joined the Conservative Party.
He then trained as an apprentice technician and worked as a process operator for Chemoxy International Ltd. Young later became a lead technician for a petrochemicals company.

Political career

Young stood as the Conservative candidate in the Redcar constituency in the 2015 general election. He finished in fourth behind the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, and the UKIP candidates. He campaigned for Brexit prior to the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. In the 2017 general election, he contested the Middlesbrough seat and finished second to the Labour candidate. In the same year, he was elected as the councillor for Coulby Newham ward on Middlesbrough Council. Young was the first Conservative councillor since the formation of the council as a unitary authority in 1996. In February 2019, he announced that he would be standing down from his council seat as he no longer lived in the town, and had moved to Saltburn-by-the-Sea. In May, he stood as a candidate for one of the three council seats for Saltburn ward on the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. He finished a close fourth.
He was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Redcar seat in the 2019 general election on 11 November. Young went on to be elected with a majority of 3,527 on a swing of 15.4% from Labour to the Conservatives. He is the first Conservative MP to represent the constituency.

Personal life

Young is gay and is engaged to his partner, Jack.