Speaker revealed for East Midlands Leadership Awards

The MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Ben Bradley, has been revealed as the keynote speaker at this year’s East Midlands Leadership Awards.

Ben will speak at the awards event on Thursday March 23 at the Crowne Plaza in front of an audience of around 250 business owners and leaders.

Tickets for the East Midlands Leadership Awards are now available. The shortlist for the event will be revealed later this month.

Born in Ripley, Derbyshire, Ben graduated with a first-class honour’s degree in Politics from Nottingham Trent University in 2013 following a stint of being a landscape gardener and administrator. Following this, he took the role of campaign manager for Mark Spencer, the Member of Parliament for Sherwood.

Ben was elected to Ashfield District Council in 2015, becoming leader of the Conservative Group, and then to Nottinghamshire County Council in 2017. He then became Member of Parliament for Mansfield in the snap General Election in June of the same year.

Ben was the first Conservative to be elected in Mansfield since the constituency’s creation in 1858, unseating the previous incumbent of 30 years.

In early 2018, Ben was appointed as vice chairman of the Conservative Party, with responsibility for youth engagement. Following on from this appointment, in March Ben relaunched the Young Conservatives organisation, the national youth wing of the Conservative Party. He resigned from this role in July 2018 in order to be able to speak out for his constituents on Brexit.

In 2019, Ben was re-elected as the MP for Mansfield with a 16,306 majority, the largest Conservative increase in the country, and has held roles in the Department for Business, Energy Industrial Strategy, the Department for Education and what was then known as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

In May 2021, he became leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, as the Conservatives took overall control at County Hall for the first time in 12 years by winning 37 seats on the 66-strong council. He has since played an integral part in negotiating and supporting key projects in the region, such as the East Midlands Freeport, East Midlands Development Corporation and the East Midlands Combined Authority devolution deal.

Click here to secure your tickets for the East Midlands Leadership Awards.