Sir Michael Tyrone Ellis (born 13 October 1967) is a British politician and barrister who served as Attorney General for England and Wales between September and October 2022, having previously served in the position from March to September 2021 during the maternity leave of Suella Braverman. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as Paymaster General from 2021 to 2022 and as Minister for the Cabinet Office from February to September 2022. Ellis served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton North from 2010 to 2024.
Ellis served in the May Government as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from 2016 to 2018, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism from 2018 to 2019, and as Minister of State for Transport from May to July 2019. When Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, he was appointed Solicitor General and, in September 2019, he was appointed to the Privy Council. He also served as Acting Attorney General from March to September 2021 after Braverman was designated as a Minister on Leave. On 15 September 2021, Ellis was appointed Paymaster General in Johnson's second cabinet reshuffle. In February 2022, he was promoted by Johnson to Minister for the Cabinet Office, a position with the right to attend Cabinet. Ellis was appointed Attorney General by Liz Truss on 6 September 2022, but was dismissed from the position by her successor, Rishi Sunak, the following month.
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Early life and career
Michael Ellis was born in Northampton on 13 October 1967 to a British Jewish family. He was privately educated at two independent schools: Spratton Hall School, a preparatory school in the village of Spratton in Northamptonshire, and at Wellingborough School, in the town of Wellingborough. He went on to study at the private University of Buckingham, where he obtained an upper-second class LL.B. degree in 1993, and won the Aylesbury Vale District Council Chairman's Prize for the Best Performance in Public Law that year.
At university, Ellis was a student editor of the Denning Law Journal. Whilst at university, he undertook an exchange programme in the United States at the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia. After attending the Inns of Court School of Law in London, he was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1993. His legal practice as a barrister was based in Northampton, and his chamber's head office was in London.
Political career
Ellis stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the Park ward of Northampton Borough Council in 1995. However, he was elected in 1997 as a Conservative councillor on Northamptonshire County Council, representing the Northampton Park (now Parklands) Ward, winning the seat from his Labour Party rival by 44 votes. He served until the next election in May 2001, when he did not stand again. At the time of his election he was the youngest county councillor in Northamptonshire, at the age of 29.
Ellis became the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Northampton North in December 2006. This followed a public vote in an open primary, which was a relatively unusual selection mechanism at the time. Ellis was elected to Parliament in the 6 May 2010 general election gaining the seat with a majority of 1,936 and 34.1% of the vote, defeating the sitting Labour MP, Sally Keeble.
In November 2010, Ellis established an All Party Group on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which he chaired for the following three years. In this role, Ellis was responsible for organising a gift of a stained glass window of the Queen's coat of arms for the Queen from both Houses of Parliament.
In July 2010, he was first elected onto the Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee) and worked on the Draft Communications Data Bill during the 2012–13 Parliamentary session. Ellis was interviewed about this Bill with Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, on the Daily Politics programme on 11 December 2012. In February 2011, Ellis was first elected onto the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
On 11 September 2013, Ellis introduced the Medical Innovation (No.2) Bill, a private members bill to the House of Commons. The bill was designed to allow doctors more scope to innovate when treating cancer patients, but was criticised by a range of medical and legal bodies, patient groups and charities. The bill was withdrawn after its first reading, following an indication from the government that they would support it. Although the Conservative MP Dan Poulter MP, who was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, suggested in July 2014 that the Government was keen to support it, it failed to progress through the House of Commons after the Liberal Democrats declined to support it.