Sir Bernard Christison Jenkin (born 9 April 1959) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich and North Essex, previously Colchester North then North Essex, since 1992. He also served as chair of the Liaison Committee.
Jenkin was elected chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee in May 2010. He is a longstanding critic of the European Union, believing that EU membership undermined the United Kingdom's national sovereignty, and he was one of the Maastricht Rebels during the premiership of John Major. In the 2016 EU referendum he supported Brexit and from 2017 he was one of the most vocal supporters of the Eurosceptic pressure group Leave Means Leave.
Bernard Jenkin was born on 9 April 1959 in Wood Green, to Patrick Jenkin, who subsequently became a Conservative MP and Cabinet minister, and later a life peer (as Baron Jenkin of Roding); and Monica Jenkin (née Graham). He is a descendant of the scientist Fleeming Jenkin.
He was educated at the fee-paying independent Highgate School, the voluntary aided William Ellis School, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a choral exhibition and gained a BA honours degree in English literature in 1982. He was President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1982.
After graduation, Jenkin worked in sales & marketing for Ford from 1983 to 1986, at the private equity company 3i from 1986 to 1988, and as a manager at Legal & General Ventures Ltd from 1989 to 1992. From 1992 to 1995, by then serving as an MP, he was an advisor to Legal & General Group plc, the parent company of his previous employer.
Jenkin stood for election as the Conservative candidate in Glasgow Central at the 1987 general election, coming second with 13% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Bob McTaggart.
At the 1992 general election, his 33rd birthday, Jenkin was elected as MP for Colchester North with 51.5% of the vote and a majority of 16,402.
During John Major's government, Jenkin was one of the Maastricht Rebels who defied the party whip to oppose the Maastricht Treaty.
Prior to the 1997 general election, Colchester North was abolished, and replaced with North Essex. At the general election, Jenkin was elected as MP for North Essex with 43.9% of the vote and a majority of 5,476.
William Hague appointed him Shadow Minister for Transport, serving from 1998 to 2001.
At the 2001 general election, Jenkin was re-elected as MP for North Essex with an increased vote share of 47.4% and an increased majority of 7,186.
Jenkin served as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2001 to 2003 under Iain Duncan Smith and Shadow Regions Secretary from 2003 to 2005 under Michael Howard.
Jenkin was again re-elected at the 2005 general election with an increased vote share of 47.6% and an increased majority of 10,903. He was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party after the general election and served until 7 November 2006, when he was replaced by John Maples. Jenkin's deputy chairman role came to an end when, during a shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was offered another frontbench position, which he declined, reportedly saying to David Cameron that only a return to the shadow cabinet would interest him.
In 2006, Jenkin faced criticism after he used the word "coloured" when referring to a British Asian Conservative A-List candidate, Ali Miraj. As of 2025, Jenkin uses the term "black and ethnic minority".
Prior to the 2010 general election, Jenkin's constituency of North Essex was abolished and replaced with Harwich and North Essex. At the election, Jenkin was elected as MP for Harwich and North Essex with 46.9% of the vote and a majority of 11,447.
In May 2012, Jenkin was re-elected as a member of the Executive of the 1922 Committee.
Jenkin, who gained a reputation as a critic of the Coalition government, led calls to drop the House of Lords Reform Bill 2012. Jenkin voted in favour of same sex marriage in 2013 "as a matter of principle", whilst acknowledging the decision to hold the debate caused much "political unhappiness".
In January 2014, Jenkin drafted a letter calling for Prime Minister Cameron to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU to give the House of Commons powers to veto EU legislation, which was ultimately signed by 95 MPs, and reportedly backed by another six. Following the Scottish independence referendum and promises made to further devolve powers to Scotland, Jenkin called for the creation of an "English First Minister" and for departments responsible for policy that applied only in England to be accountable only to the English MPs.