| Claire Wright | |
| Office: | Devon County Councillor for Otter Valley Ottery St. Mary Rural (2013–2017) |
| Term Start: | 2 May 2013 |
| Term End: | 6 May 2021 |
| Predecessor: | Roger Giles |
| Successor: | Jess Bailey |
| Party: | Independent |
| Nationality: | British |
| Residence: | Ottery St Mary |
Claire Wright[1] is a British politician. She was a Devon county councillor from 2013 to 2021 and stood as an independent for East Devon in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 United Kingdom general elections, coming second each time.[2]
Wright started working in the National Health Service in a public relations role in 2001, served on the Ottery St Mary Town Council and was elected to Devon County Council in 2013 with 74 percent of the vote.[3] [4] She stood as a parliamentary candidate in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 elections, receiving progressively larger shares of the vote each time.[5] Wright's main policy interests are the NHS, social care and preserving the environment,[6] with her manifesto based on a community survey.[7]
The East Devon constituency has only ever been held by the Conservative Party and was considered a safe seat. With growing support in the 2017 general election for Wright, polling indicated that the seat had become marginal.[8] Queen guitarist Brian May endorsed Wright in 2017,[7] while actor Hugh Grant and reporter Martin Bell endorsed Wright at the 2019 election.[5] [9] However, in the December 2019 election, Wright lost to the Conservative Simon Jupp by nearly 7,000 votes.[10] Asked by local radio if she would run again, Wright said she was unsure.[11] In 2021, she announced she would not stand in the 2021 County Council elections.[12]
In Diary of an MP's Wife (2020), the memoirs of Sasha Swire, Wright is frequently referred to by the nickname "Claire Wrong".[13]
After the resignation of Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, in May 2022, there were some suggestions that Wright would stand in the subsequent by-election. However, she clarified on a statement on Twitter that she would not put her name forward, instead endorsing the Liberal Democrats.[14] [15] Although Tiverton and Honiton had also been a safe seat for the Tories before, Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Foord overturned Parish's 2019 majority of more than 24,000 votes and was elected.[16]
For the 2024 general election in the newly created constituencies of Exmouth and Exeter East and Honiton and Sidmouth, Wright has endorsed the campaigns of the prospective Liberal Democrat candidates, and declined to stand in either constituency.[17] [18]
Wright lives in Ottery St Mary in East Devon.[3]