Sir Michael Alan Penning (born 28 September 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician, who served as the member of parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead from 2005 to 2024.

[3] After leaving school, Penning enlisted in the British Army as a Grenadier Guardsman, and served several tours in Northern Ireland, Kenya and Germany.

[4] After leaving the Army, Penning subsequently worked as a firefighter for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, before joining his family business and then becoming a political journalist.

[5] In the mid-1990s, Penning worked as a media adviser to the Euro-rebels who had had the Conservative Party whip removed by Prime Minister John Major during the Maastricht rebellion.

Following this, he was appointed as a chief adviser to William Hague as Leader of the Opposition, later becoming the Conservative Party's deputy head of media under the brief and unpopular leadership of Iain Duncan Smith.

At the 2005 general election Penning stood in the Labour-held seat of Hemel Hempstead, narrowly defeating sitting MP Tony McWalter.

[7] In the words of neighbouring MP Peter Lilley, "There is something providential about the fact that the worst fire in western Europe since the Second World War should occur in a constituency represented by a fireman.

"[8] Penning, who arrived on the scene within half an hour of the explosion, had himself been trained to deal with much smaller petroleum fires; the scenario was that one tank not twenty was affected.

[11] Penning, whose support for Dexion preceded his election, offered compensation from unclaimed assets in his 2005 Manifesto[12] and has spoken on the issue 26 times in Parliament.

[13] Dexion pensioners were featured celebrating a victory at the High Court in February 2007 which eventually led to increased compensation from the then-Labour government.

[27] In his capacity as minister for shipping, Penning presented Efthimios Mitropoulos (immediate past-IMO secretary-general) with the insignia of KCMG in Greece on behalf of the Queen.