Twenty months after her husband Mark Coxshall began working for NE Cambs MP Steve Barclay, his wife Dame Jackie Doyle Price, a former Conservative MP for Thurrock, has thrown her hat into the ring to win a seat on Cambridgeshire County Council after moving to Wisbech.
Doyle-Price has told prospective constituents: “I chose to make my life here after falling in love with the Fens and its amazing history and heritage. I have found everyone very welcoming and I want to get stuck into doing my bit to make our area the best it can be.”
She has been selected by the NE Cambridgeshire Conservative Association to contest the expected by election in Roman Bank & Peckover if, as seems likely, the current Reform councillor Andy Osborn has not appealed a court’s decision to force him to stand down after being found guilty of breaking electoral law.
Osborn was chairman of the NE Cambridgeshire Reform Party and won the Roman Bank & Peckover division in 2025 with 44.5 per cent of the vote.
However last month he was found guilty at Westminster magistrates court of making or publishing a false statement under the Representation of the People Act 1983 for a malicious comment about a Wisbech councillor, Samantha Hoy.
The judge, Nina Tempia, found him guilty despite Osborn’s assertion his social media account had been hacked. Osborn, of March, was also fined £1,000 and told to pay a further £800 including costs and a surcharge.
Reform are planning to contest the seat once, or if, a by election is called which is now likely. Osborn had until May 6 to launch an appeal against the verdict and early indications are that he has not done so.
Cambridgeshire County Council will now call a by election, but it led to chief executive Stephen Moir being forced earlier this month to remind the NE Cambs Conservative Association of being premature in stating the by election had already been called.
Reform officials claim the Conservatives took no notice of that ‘reminder’ and are already running a full blown campaign – which judging by the social media efforts and leafletting already in progress can hardly be denied.
Doyle-Price has been emphatic that “I live in Wisbech; my home is in North Brink,” and is hopeful electors will recognise that her 14 years as MP will put her in good stead for the seat.
“I have a reputation as a straight talking and determined campaigner,” she says. “Amongst my many campaigns, I spoke up for victims of sexual violence; I led the efforts to honour our obligations to Gurkha veterans, and I fought to defend women’s rights to single sex spaces. I am proud to have been made a Dame in recognition of my public service.”
Cllr Steve Tierney, chairman of, North East Cambridgeshire Conservative Association, has thrown his support behind Doyle-Price.
In a letter circulated to residents he says: “Reform promised a great deal before the election, but Andy Osborn has been conspicuous by his absence.
“He has done nothing to resolve the woeful state of our roads. In one of the few council meetings, he did manage to attend, he called children in care “evil” and got national attention for that unpleasant and ill-informed remark”.
Tierney adds: “Reform selected a poor candidate who then demonstrated dishonourable and illegal behaviour. This has harmed the Roman Bank and Peckover area both in poor service and in cost.”
In some ways Doyle-Price is an unusual choice for a Fenland seat since she voiced her opposition ahead of the 2016 Brexit vote. Fenland was 71.4% Leave compared to 28.6% Remain
And over the years she faced criticism for employing her husband as her part time office manager on a salary of around £30,000 a year.
But times change, expectations move on, and of course with local government reorganisation under way and a new unitary authority planned that will likely join Fenland with Peterborough and Huntingdonshire, Doyle-Price will no doubt see opportunities ahead.
It will still be a far cry from the time she was, for instance, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy but that lasted only a month: appointed by Liz Truss in September 2022 she was dropped the following month when Rishi Sunak became prime minister.
Doyle-Price had also served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health from June 2017 to July 2019, but she also enjoyed a formidable career as MP having been elected in 2010 with a majority of just 92, polling 16,869 votes compared to Labour’s Carl Morris’ 16,777.
She was also unafraid of criticising Thurrock Council over its financial crisis, even though her husband Mark was a prominent councillor and for time was leader of the council.
“As a Conservative I am utterly opposed to taking unnecessary risk with taxpayers’ money,” she once said.
Doyle-Price was awarded a Damehood in Liz Truss’ resignation honours list.
Going forward both Doyle-Price and her husband will be glad to ease Thurrock to the back of their minds, particularly after Thursday’s elections which saw Reform sweep to power.
As the BBC reported: “Cheers erupted from Reform supporters as result after result went their way. By early afternoon, Reform UK’s success became impossible to ignore.
“Loud cheers and applause rang out from jubilant supporters. Winning candidates celebrated gains with hugs, handshakes, and victory photos.
“For Labour and the Conservatives, it was a different picture; some campaigners stood silent, while others quietly removed their rosettes before leaving the venue.
“Some losing candidates broke down in tears, while others promised to come back stronger.”
For Coxshall his tenure as Thurrock council leader had been short lived, appointed in October 2022 following the resignation of leader Rob Gledhill amid a major financial scandal (the council faced £1.5 billion in debts from failed investments, leading to effective bankruptcy and government intervention with a commissioner).
As leader, he acknowledged “systemic weaknesses” and a “poor culture” at the council, apologised to residents, and worked on recovery plans while services continued under oversight.
His tenure was dominated by managing the fallout from the debt crisis
In the May 2023 Thurrock Council elections (held amid the bankruptcy context), Coxshall lost his seat in Chafford & North Stifford to Labour’s Vikki Hartstean (639 votes to 741).
Today, on his LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as fulfilling two roles for Steve Barclay, firstly as ‘senior political assistant’ and also as ‘senior political agent’ suggesting perhaps he is paid a salary by both the MP and the constituency association.
