Tomlinson was born in Blackburn, Lancashire on 5 November 1976. He studied at Harry Cheshire High School, a state comprehensive in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, and Oxford Brookes University, where he was Chairman of its Conservative Student Branch from 1995–99. He was National Chairman of Conservative Future, the youth-wing of the Conservative Party, between 2002 and 2003. Tomlinson used to work on the coaches for a nightclub called Eros in Swindon, Wiltshire. He also operated a small marketing business. Tomlinson stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Abbey Meads ward on Swindon Borough Council and was elected in 2000, before being re-elected in the same ward in 2002 and 2006.
Parliamentary career
Tomlinson unsuccessfully stood in North Swindon at the 2005 general election, losing to the defending Labour MP Michael Wills by 2,571 votes. However, he won the seat from Labour at the 2010 general election, defeating the new Labour candidate Victor Agarwall by 7,060 votes. In total, Tomlinson received 22,408 votes, with a swing of 10.1% from Labour to the Conservatives. Along with fellow Conservative MP Chris Kelly, Tomlinson placed a bet while at university that he would be Prime Minister before the year 2038. He stands to win £500,000 should this happen. Kelly stood down at the 2015 general election after having served a single term. He reported the Labour MP Sadiq Khan to the police in 2014 after Khan was photographed apparently driving whilst using a mobile phone. Tomlinson said "those who make the laws should certainly not be above them". Khan was not prosecuted and went on to become elected as Mayor of London in 2016. He was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People following the 2015 General Election victory of the Conservative Party, serving until the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, reshuffled the government in 2016. Prior to that he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Vaizey. On 9 July 2018, Tomlinson was appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance. In May 2015, it was reported by The Huffington Post that his appointment as Minister for Disabled People was controversial as he had previously voted against protecting the benefits of disabled children and those undergoing cancer treatment. Tomlinson faced calls for his resignation in October 2015 after it was reported that he had leaked information from the Public Accounts committee regarding regulation of short term high cost credit "payday lenders" to Wonga.com back in 2013. Tomlinson accepted he had broken the rules and apologised, stating that his "strongly-held belief that action needed to be taken on payday lenders" had caused his "judgement to be clouded". Tomlinson arranged £30,000 of sponsorship for Swindon Supermarine F.C., a local football team by the same payday lender wonga.com. The football club's chairman, Jez Webb, has made donations of £30,218 to both Tomlinson's and local Conservative Party funds since 2014. Webb stated that he donated in a personal capacity and that the very similar amounts "were coincindental." Tomlinson was subsequently accused of trying to remove references to previous links to Wonga from his website, including the arrangement of a sponsorship deal with Swindon Supermarine F.C. in 2011. Tomlinson voted for the UK to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. In the House of Commons he sits on the Work and Pensions Committee. He has sat on the Public Accounts Committee and Consolidation Bills. Tomlinson employs his partner as Office Manager on a salary up to £40,000. The practice of MPs employing family members, has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Tomlinson's employment of his partner is lawful. In September 2016, Tomlinson apologised for leaking "a draft of a public accounts committee report on the credit industry to someone he knew who worked for payday lender Wonga. And when his mate emailed four suggested amendments back, he had forwarded them virtually word for word on to the committee as if they were his own". In November 2018, Tomlinson again sparked controversy, this time by suggesting that families facing penury under the Universal Credit scheme initiated by the Conservative governments of 2010–2018 should "take in a lodger." Tomlinson was apparently unaware that, both private and other leases prohibit any form of sub-letting. Tomlinson is Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance within the Department for Work and Pensions.
Personal life
Tomlinson announced his engagement to Jo Wheeler in August 2011, having proposed on The Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island. The couple married at the House of Commons on 2 June 2012. In July 2016, Tomlinson confirmed he had divorced his wife and was dating his office manager, Katie Bennett, who is 14 years younger than him.
