Timothy Paul Loughton, FSA (/ˈlɔːtən/ LAW-tən; born 30 May 1962) is a British politician and former banker who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham from 1997 to 2024.

A member of the Conservative Party, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from 2010 to 2012 and has twice served as the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2016 and 2021, following the respective resignations of Keith Vaz and Yvette Cooper.

Loughton unsuccessfully contested Sheffield Brightside for the Conservative Party at the 1992 general election, finishing in second with 16.8% behind the incumbent Labour MP David Blunkett.

In February 2012, Loughton was part of a ministerial working group on how the law should be changed regarding how to amend the Children Act 1989.

[12][16] In January 2013, Loughton was involved in a political dispute involving his earlier work as a minister in the Department for Education (DofE) when he compared the role of Education Secretary Michael Gove to "Young Mr Grace" from the British sitcom Are You Being Served?, suggesting there was little interaction between ministers and staff in the department.

[17] The next day Loughton was described in an anonymous briefing from the DofE to The Spectator as a "lazy, incompetent narcissist obsessed only with self-promotion".

[21] Loughton subsequently gave his account of the affair in a parliamentary privilege protected House of Commons speech and criticised the police response.

[22] At a hearing of the Standards and Privileges committee in January 2014, Loughton said that by issuing the PIN the police had "exacerbated the situation out of all control".

The comments made by Loughton were described as "disgusting" by Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat minister for Women and Equalities.

From 6 September 2016 – 19 October 2016, Loughton acted as Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee following the resignation of the Labour MP Keith Vaz over alleged inappropriate behaviour.

[37] After Loughton announced in October 2017 that he meditates in the bath for an hour every morning, it was reported that he had built up water bills over the previous two years of £662, which he had put on his expenses.

However, the real story was a conference I co-hosted at Westminster yesterday, which brought together 20 MPs from over 15 countries to promote mindfulness as one of the ways we can help tackle the epidemic of mental illness.

[42] The practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism.

He was subsequently banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau and Chinese citizens and institutions are prohibited from doing business with him.