About Nick

Nick Herbert (Lord Herbert of South Downs) is a Member of the House of Lords and the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on LGBT Rights. He is Chair of the College of Policing, the Countryside Alliance, The Project for Modern Democracy, the Global TB Caucus and the Global Equality Caucus, and he is Board Advisor to Get Licensed.

Nick was Conservative Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs for nearly 15 years, from May 2005 to November 2019 when he stepped down. He fought four general election campaigns in the constituency, increasing his majority to a record in 2017. He remains a Patron of the Mary How Trust for Cancer Prevention and The Sussex Snowdrop Trust.

He served as Shadow Minister for Police Reform, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under David Cameron's leadership, drawing up the Conservative Party's environmental agenda and its radical reforms of policing and prisons. He then served as Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice in the Coalition Government, working in both the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, before resigning in 2012.

Prior to his election Nick was the Director of Reform, the independent think tank which he co-founded in 2002 and which aims to “set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity”, and before that, from 1998 to 2000, Nick was Chief Executive of Business for Sterling, where he launched the successful ‘no’ campaign against the euro. 

In the 1997 election Nick stood as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate in Berwick Upon Tweed, one of the most rural seats in England. Nick is passionate about defending rural communities. From 1990 to 1996 he worked for the British Field Sports Society, becoming its Director of Political Affairs. In this role he played a leading role in setting up the Countryside Movement, which became the Countryside Alliance and which he now chairs. In 2023 he launched Future Countryside which aims to ‘put people at the heart of rural policy’.

Nick has worked closely with international development NGOs on the growing problem of tuberculosis, especially in developing countries. In 2006 Nick helped to form the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global TB which he continues to co-chair. In 2014 he launched the Global TB Caucus which he also continues to chair, initiating the Barcelona Declaration with a speech to the World Lung Conference.

In 2014 he launched GovernUp, a cross-party project which aims to promote "the far-reaching reforms needed in Whitehall and beyond to enable more effective and efficient government", together with its parent think tank, The Project for Modern Democracy, which he chairs. He launched the Commission for Smart Government in 2020. He authored Why Vote Conservative 2015 ahead of the general election that year.

Nick played a leading role in making the case for equal marriage, launching the Freedom to Marry campaign in 2012 ahead of the successful Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. In June 2015 Nick helped to launch, and became the first chair, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT Rights.

In 2019, Nick launched the Global Equality Caucus at the United Nations in New York. The Caucus is the first dedicated global network aimed at bringing together elected representatives to promote LGBT+ rights and oppose homophobic discrimination. Nick has also been the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for LGBT Rights since 2021.

Ahead of the referendum on Brexit, Nick launched Conservatives For Reform In Europe, the campaign to remain in the EU, subject to the Prime Minister's renegotiations. During the referendum campaign this became part of Conservatives IN which Nick chaired.

Nick was appointed to the Privy Council in 2010, awarded a CBE in 2016 and created a Life Peer in 2020.

Nick went to school at Haileybury, from where he won an Open Exhibition to read Law and Land Economy at Magdalene College, Cambridge. 

Nick lives near Newmarket with his husband Jason Eades and their Dandie Dinmont terriers Sidney and Dora. In his spare time he enjoys racing and country sports, watching cricket and rugby, and going to the theatre, cinema, opera and ballet.