Toby Perkins was born on 12th August 1970. His Father VF Perkins is still a University lecturer at Warwick University and his Mother Teresa Perkins lectured at Sheffield Hallam University until her death in 2005. His Great Grandfather, the playwright Sir AP Herbert, was the last MP for Oxford University before his seat was abolished by Clement Attlee‘s Labour Government!

Toby attended Trinity School, Leamington Spa, and Silverdale School in Sheffield, before leaving at the age of 17 to start on a YTS scheme for a Sheffield computer firm.
 
In 1991 at the age of 20 Toby first came to Chesterfield to work for CCS Media in IT Sales.

He was married to Susan Beverley Francis at Chesterfield Parish Church (aka the Crooked Spire) in 1996. They have two children Lewis (born 1998) and Chloe (2003).

Toby worked in the Recruitment industry for eight years for one of Britain’s leading recruitment firms ultimately as an Area Manager responsible for a budget of over £2M with a branch network stretching from Peterborough to Shefield.

In 2004 Toby launched the Rugby clothing company Club Rugby, which he still runs in Chesterfield, supplying Rugby kit and equipment to Rugby clubs, as well as teams based from schools, universities and the Armed Forces.

In 2003 Toby was elected to Chesterfield Borough Council as Councillor for the Rother Ward. During his first term as a Councillor he was ahead of his time in launching the Healthy Eating Scrutiny Panel, a cross party panel that sought to improve the nutritional content of food provided by the Council in it’s facilities. Toby’s majority was doubled as he was re-elected in 2007, and he was selected by the Labour Group to be their Vice Chair on the Council‘s Scrutiny Board.

Toby also acts as Director of a Childcare Co-operative providing Nursery services to children under 4 in the Rother Ward.

In 2007 Toby was selected by Chesterfield Labour Party to be their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate with an overwhelming majority and he immediately set up the ‘Listening to Chesterfield’s programme to allow Chesterfield people to get their voice heard by the Government.

This programme has seen Government Ministers such as Ed Miliband and James Purnell come to Chesterfield to listen to the views of Chesterfield people.