During her time as an MP, Theo sat on the International Development and Women and Equalities Select Committees. She also served as parliamentary private secretary at the Departments for Education, Business and Trade and HM Treasury, in addition to being trade envoy for the Prime Minister. She won Speech of the Year at the Parliamentarian of the Year Awards and was included in the prestigious Top 100 Women in Westminster list in 2025 and 2024. Theo currently is currently Vice Chair of the Board of the United Nations Association UK, which is dedicated to promoting human rights, peace and security and UN reform, and has a remit to advance the UN Charter and its Sustainable Development Goals, covering gender equality, health, poverty and climate.

Becoming a campaigner for improved maternity care

During her time as MP, Theo suffered a traumatic experience giving birth to her daughter when she was rushed into emergency surgery, terrified she was going to die. She shared this in an emotional debate in the House of Commons in October 2023. Amazed by the public response, she set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Birth Trauma and subsequently chaired the first ever national inquiry into birth trauma in British history. The Birth Trauma Inquiry heard evidence from over 1,300 women, exposing the shocking underinvestment in women’s health in the UK. In November 2024, she launched the Global Birth Trauma Alliance, and thanks to her campaigning there is now a cross-party commitment to improve maternity care.

Looking back on her time at Downe House

Theo reflected on how her education at Downe House shaped and prepared her for front-line politics. A favourite memory was the excitement of House Drama, and the teamwork involved in putting each production together.

At school she didn’t study Politics and unlike many of her male Westminster colleagues, she hadn’t set her sights on becoming Prime Minister by the time she was five. But at 16 she was sent to New York for a formative two weeks at the UN, where she was invited to speak on the floor of the UN General Assembly and the then Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, predicted she was destined for politics. While at Downe House, her time in France and on a global exchange to India opened her eyes to working in international affairs.

Theo left Downe House in 2003 and studied Art History at Newcastle University and the Courtauld Institute of Art. After graduating she worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Christie's and co-founded the Association of Women in the Arts, which aims to make the art world a fairer place for women. She later founded the Coalition for Global Prosperity, a think tank backed by the Gates Foundation, which brings together business, faith, military and civilian leaders to make the case for Britain as a ‘force for good’ in the world, where she was Chief Executive, before becoming an MP.

Entering politics

After working for NGOs lobbying governments, she realised if she wanted to be the one making the decisions, she was on the wrong side of the table. As an elected politician, she could make that change.

She joined the Conservative party under David Cameron’s leadership and campaigned for Rory Stewart who became her political mentor. She has fond memories of the six months she spent door-knocking and preparing him for hustings all across Cumbria.

She knows the importance of role models, so another political hero is Nancy Astor, the first female MP. When Theo stood for Parliament in Stafford, she was the first female MP elected in that constituency. A girl of about nine approached Theo on World Book Day dressed as a Suffragette, to tell her “You’ve broken the glass ceiling, you’ve become our first female MP and I’m going to be the next.”

Women in politics  

With only just over a third of MPs in Westminster currently women, Theo is passionate about encouraging more women to pursue a career in politics and she supports the 50:50 Parliament campaign https://5050parliament.co.uk/ “There’s just not enough women elected.”

But she also recognises that Westminster is not an easy place to work, especially for women with young families. “Parliament is just not set up as a modern workplace.” You’re never off-duty, which of course makes it extremely challenging for MPs with young families “There’s no other job where you are permanently expected to be on duty 24-hours a day.”

Following the death of her colleague Sir David Amos MP, Theo had police protection at public events, bomb proof letterboxes installed at her home, and constituents couldn’t attend surgeries without prior vetting and appointments. “I didn’t feel safe at a lot of public events.”

Female MPs also receive around four times more online abuse and harassment than their male colleagues, and with the social media platforms creating echo chambers, the public aren’t seeing the breadth of views and debate. Theo feels strongly that schools and universities are essential to teach critical thinking that allows people to make up their own minds, rather than being influenced by their feed.

Theo describes Westminster as like a medieval court at times. Even the layout of the House of Commons is combative, with the benches being the width of two swords touching each other, which only encourages tribal behaviour, in contrast to the UN or other parliaments around the world, that encourage consensus and collaboration.

Campaigning for change

When Theo had a difficult birth, she didn’t tell anyone for a long time, worried it could be perceived as a weakness that opponents might use against her in the election campaign. But two things changed her mind.

The first was a visit to St George’s Hospital in Stafford, where she visited the mother and baby unit and met mums who’d suffered breakdowns after giving birth, some of whom went on to experience post-partum psychosis. One mother told Theo she didn’t recognise her own baby. Knowing hers was only one of 18 constituencies with such a unit, Theo wondered who was looking after these mothers elsewhere. The second was a meeting with 10 mothers introduced to Theo by the Birth Trauma Association, who shared shocking stories of baby loss and birth injuries.

She was powerfully struck by the fact that there was a postcode lottery in maternity care. Although Theo wasn’t a Minister, she knew she had the great privilege to ask questions in the House and to talk to the media in order to raise awareness.

But she was stunned to find the first interview she gave, to the The Times, was given a full double-page spread and published on their home page. After tweeting the article link, her post soon racked up nearly half a million views, with comments by politicians from all sides of the House, including Jess Phillips, Penny Mordant and many members of the Cabinet. Theo was overwhelmed by the scale of support she received.

Even at this point Theo didn’t expect to become a campaigner on women’s health. But she believes these sorts of personal causes, informed by a politician’s personal experience and commitment, can be incredibly powerful in bringing about real change.

Theo went on to build cross-party consensus to demand we invest more in maternity care and end the postcode lottery experienced by the mothers and fathers she’d met. She set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Birth Trauma, with Labour MP Rosie Duffield, making the point that the issue isn’t party political and, with such broad support, is hard to ignore.

She subsequently chaired the Birth Trauma Inquiry, which heard evidence from over 1,300 women. Its key recommendation was the creation and implementation of a National Maternity Strategy to standardise policy and provision across the country.

She is proudest of an apparently small change, that will have a big impact. At the six-week postnatal appointment, the baby tended to be the focus of the review. But Theo successfully lobbied the Government to also focus on the mother’s mental and physical health, which has now been rolled out nationally.

But there are many areas that still need improvement – better staffing, more continuity of care and improved training for the next generation of trainee midwives, as well as addressing remaining differences across the country and in the devolved nations, where a mother might be a five-hour drive from a mental health appointment.

Looking to the future

Theo spoke movingly of the time when she thought she was going to die, leaving her husband to raise their daughter alone. It focused her mind. She recalled leaving hospital, knowing she was only going to be an MP for a few more years. She thought “I want to make them count. I want to make a difference.”

With just a few decades on this planet, her advice to our girls is to work out where you want to focus your energy and attention and then go for it: “every single person… has the power to make a difference. You just need to decide on what topic.”

Theo has been extremely busy since leaving Parliament. She hosts the hit podcast Breaking the Taboo which ranks in the Top 5 most listened to shows in the UK for alternative health. She has also published her memoir, Breaking the Taboo: why we need to talk about birth trauma. And she has set up a new charity, the Global Birth Trauma Alliance.

She believes women’s healthcare requires politicians around the world to make it an urgent priority, and she’ll be making the case at the UN and at the World Economic Forum in Davos. After all, not everyone will catch malaria, but everyone is born.

About Theo | Theo Clarke

Breaking the Taboo | Theo Clarke | Substack

Find Theo’s Breaking the Taboo podcast on Spotify or iTunes.