Elizabeth Truss lives in Downham Market. She is married with two daughters. She was elected as the MP for South West Norfolk at the General Election on 6th May 2010.
Elizabeth was brought up in Yorkshire, attending the local comprehensive school before going on to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford University. She worked in the energy and telecommunications industry for ten years as a commercial manager and economics director - and is a qualified management accountant.
As Deputy Director at the think-tank Reform, Elizabeth advocated more rigorous academic standards in schools, a greater focus on tackling serious and organised crime and urgent action to deal with Britain's £175bn deficit.
Elizabeth has been a member of the Conservative Party for the past thirteen years. She has worked as an Association Chairman and a councillor and fought parliamentary seats in 2001 and 2005.
Elizabeth enjoys spending time having fun with her husband and daughters. Food (growing, cooking, eating) is her big hobby and she particularly loves the revival of our food heritage taking place at the moment. Norfolk has an abundance of excellent meat and vegetables and Elizabeth is keen to work to help promote local produce.
Campaigning for Norfolk South West
Norfolk South West needs improvements to infrastructure to support businesses and residents. Elizabeth is determined to find new ways and funding to bring good roads, faster broadband and reliable energy supplies.
Elizabeth will fight to protect the character of Thetford, Downham Market and Swaffham whilst helping to encourage new enterprise, jobs and services. She is also determined to see rural villages retain shops, small businesses and pubs which are the lifeblood of local life.
Local businesses need highly skilled workers. Elizabeth supports parents in seeking a rigorous education with good discipline at all local schools. She has written extensively on reforming national examinations to help achieve this.
Too much public money has been wasted. Elizabeth wants to use her accountancy background and business experience to get value for money in every penny that is spent on our public services.
Elizabeth Truss says:
"Politics in this country is broken and must change. That means real decisions at a local level, more power to people and complete transparency about the way our public services and our democracy work and what your representatives are doing for you. I am determined to work with you and for you to establish a new way forward for Norfolk and Britain. "
