Former City solicitor Robert Jenrick MP has joined the government as parliamentary private secretary to justice secretary Michael Gove. The unpaid position will give him a crucial role liaising with backbenchers over the government’s troubled human rights reform plans.

Jenrick is seen as a rising star in the Conservative party following his election last year in the hotly contested Newark by-election. It was the Conservatives’ first by-election win while in power since 1989.

He was born in Wolverhampton in 1982, read history at Cambridge and studied as a postgraduate at the College of Law and BPP Law School before joining international firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom where he qualified as a solicitor.

He practised corporate law in London and Moscow before moving into business, holding management roles at the Christie’s art business.