MP Coutinho was elected the Member of Parliament for East Surrey in 2019. Growing up, she watched her parents work as family doctors in the NHS, listening to people’s problems and solving them as best they could. It is in that spirit that she hopes to serve the people of East Surrey. As an MP, she is now working as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to HM Treasury.
At the beginning of her career, she worked in emerging markets in the City of London. After a few years, she decided to leave that job to work in social justice policy – from education to financial inclusion to the regeneration of Britain’s most deprived communities. After five years, she became a Special Adviser and worked for then-Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak. As an MP, she is now working as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to HM Treasury. In June 2020, she set up the East of Surrey Local Economic Taskforce with neighbouring MP Crispin Blunt to bring decision-makers across Surrey together to drive the local economic strategy. She is also the only sitting MP on the Surrey Growth Board. In Westminster, she is on the Advisory Board of the think tank Onward, and she is a member of Policy Exchange’s Indo-Pacific Commission.
Claire graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Maths and Philosophy.