Name: Ashton Edwards (He/Him/HIs)
Avatar: Shawn Mendes
Age: 33 (born 16 March 1986 in Upton, Wirral, United Kingdom)
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Sexuality/Marriage Status: Closeted Homosexual, unmarried
Party: Labour
Primary Tribe: Momentum
Secondary Tribes: Open Labour
Brexit Position: Remain
Constituency: Kensington
Year Elected: 2017
Education: New Brighton Primary School, The Mosslands School (Secondary), Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (Bachelor’s in Music [Song Writing & Performance])
Career: Musician (2007 - Present, sort of…)
Parliamentary Career (if applicable): MP for Kensington (2017 - Present).
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Ashton Edwards was the first son born to Andrew and Jane Edwards, a husband-and-wife business couple that owned and operated a long-time family-run shop in New Brighton. He grew up with a younger brother, Brian, in the family’s terraced home. He attended county (later called community) schools near his home. While his parents were sure that Ashton would have some sort of interest in taking over the business, his own passion was music. His parents would have Ashton play in their little shop - an old piano - to see if he’d get out of it. Spoiler alert: he didn’t.
Throughout school he was a halfway-decent student, though he excelled in playing football and in playing music; Ashton chose to focus on the latter by applying to attend the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. He learned to hone his talent, and move from playing covers of other artists to crafting his own pop-inspired music.
Ashton pins his start in late 2007 when the website YouTube came to the UK; he used this platform (like so many others) to upload and share little clips of his playing and his covers to the internet. He would also play at small shows throughout Merseyside; his somewhat growing attention helped him get signed by Syco Music in 2009 which helped spread his reach (and income) beyond what he could pick up himself. His first studio single, a remastering of a song he wrote entitled “My Religion,” released in 2009 and topped out for a week at #6 on the UK Singles Chart for a short period. His first studio album, entitled Ashton Edwards, came out in early 2010 and received strong praise in its reviews for the kind of music that could appeal to teens and young adults in the pop category. A single from that album, “Promenade Road” again broke into the Top 10 on the Singles Chart, this time staying up there for a few weeks, and touching the Number 1 spot for a few weeks in late 2010.
While working on his second album, Ashton’s label signed the incredibly popular One Direction, whose success rapidly eclipsed his own, though Ashton was invited to open for the band during the UK and Ireland part of their Up All Night Tour in 2011.
Ashton’s second album, Never Young Enough, came out in 2012, again to strong reviews; this album debuted at #53 on the Billboard 200 Chart, and slowly climbed up, over the course of several weeks, to hit #1- where it was dethroned quickly by One Direction (don’t worry, he slightly outlasted the young bastards).
In 2013, Ashton embarked on his own world tour- well, “world” being the UK, Ireland, the Continent, and North America using songs from Never Young Enough and his earlier album, including popular covers as well.
In early 2014, Ashton released his third studio album, At It Again, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 Chart and stayed at #1 for several weeks. He performed a number of concerts in the UK and the rest of Europe that year as well, though opting for more frequent and smaller appearances in less-popular and massive venues.
In 2016, he released A New Direction, where he started to move away from pop and into other genres; this album debuted highly from his name recognition but quickly fell off the charts as reviews were mostly negative, with one review posted online saying simply that “whatever direction it is, it’s a wrong way.” Ashton’s legions of fans jumped to his defense, but it wasn’t enough to boost record sales.
Ashton’s family had been stalwart Labour supporters, and so that was the default starting position for him, though his experiences traveling the world and engaging with fans opened his eyes to all sorts of popular causes of the time on human rights (particularly LGBT+ rights as well as disabled rights) and environmental issues. Despite benefitting from capitalism, he also would talk about economic inequality, so sticking with Labour causes came naturally. Ashton was also pro-EU and helped to pen Remain’s anthem in the 2016 referendum as he thought Europe, with reforms, could be a force for good.
Given his ties to the Syco record label, Ashton lived in London and was often seen around there; his political stances as well as relative popularity in the area helped him get selected as the party’s candidate (that and the short time frame of the 2017 election) for Kensington - a Conservative stronghold where he would no doubt have little chance.
Despite the downturn in his career, Ashton was able to turn out a significant number of fans in the London area to canvass for him and the star power certainly didn’t hurt him (maybe among the few young Conservative fans, but who cares?). He was able to bring forward strong messaging against the incumbent MP - Victoria Borwick - on her pro-Brexit stance being out of step with the constituency, her support of the ivory trade, and linking her to gentrification efforts that were eroding the diversity of the community. All of this added up to three recounts and a majority of exactly 20 when the votes were finally certified.
Ashton’s maiden speech came a few weeks after his election- and after the Grenfell Tower fire in his constituency. Initially he sought to meet with survivors of the fire and provide assistance before turning towards pushing for change; he blamed efforts at gentrification for the cladding which was meant more to make the housing more “appealing” to residents of Kensington for the fire along with cost-cutting and poor workmanship. While a maiden speech might not be noticed normally, he did get some attention given the closeness of his race and his relative fame before entering politics; although there was general agreement that he could have been a bit more polished and statesmanlike in the delivery.
Having been a supporter of Remain - like his constituency, he’ll point out- Ashton remind a steady vote against the various Brexit deals, though now that the deed is done, he accepts that this is the outcome but continues to support finding a way to stay close with Europe.
Ashton is currently single (though he’s looking for love and using “dating” apps for that purpose). He’s no stranger though to the sort of attention this gets with tabloids having shared pictures on various dates in the past- and the attention of the many female fans who would no doubt love to win his favor.