Streeter served as a junior minister in the
Lord Chancellor's Department under Prime Minister
John Major from 1996 until the defeat of the
Major Government in 1997. After the 1997 election, Streeter was Major's
Parliamentary private secretary when he was
Leader of the Opposition. He served as
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in the Shadow Cabinet of
William Hague from 1998 until the new Conservative leader
Iain Duncan Smith returned him to the
backbenches in 2001. He is currently a member of the
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission and is the member of the committee responsible for answering oral questions in Parliament on behalf of the
Electoral Commission. He assumed the role after Sir
Peter Viggers stepped down during the
MPs' expenses scandal. His own expenses for 2008/09 were £162,719, ranking 158th out of 647 MPs. In March 2012, Streeter was one of three MPs who signed a letter to the
Advertising Standards Authority asking it to reverse its decision to stop the Christian group "Healing on the Streets of Bath" from making explicit claims that prayer can heal. The letter called for the ASA to provide "indisputable scientific evidence" that faith healing did not work. Another signer,
Tim Farron of the
Liberal Democrats, later wrote that the letter was not "well-worded" and that he should not have signed it "as it was written". In 2013, Streeter referred to the "familiar glint in the swivelled eyes of the purists" within his own party in an article attacking the divisions caused by those activists who were calling for a referendum on EU membership. The remark followed allegations that senior members of the government had characterised
Eurosceptic activists as "swivel-eyed loons". Streeter argued that the result of party infighting over the issue would be "a Labour-led government bend[ing] the knee to Brussels". In November 2018, Streeter announced his support for
Theresa May's Brexit agreement. In December 2018, it was announced that Streeter would receive a
knighthood in the
2019 New Year Honours List. Streeter told the
Press Association that he hoped his honour reflected, in part, his work over the past decade as chairman of the all-party group on Christians in Parliament and supporting new MPs once they had arrived at Westminster. Streeter was a supporter of
Esther McVey during the
2019 Conservative Party leadership election and one of the proposers of her nomination. McVey was eliminated in the first round of voting. In later rounds he backed
Sajid Javid, who was appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer by eventual victor
Boris Johnson later that year. Streeter was reelected at the
2019 general election with an increased majority. He briefly acted as
Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means at the start of the
2019 Parliament. On 2 February 2022, Streeter announced that he had submitted a letter to the chairman of the
1922 Committee, seeking a motion of no confidence in the prime minister,
Boris Johnson, stating that "
I cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British Public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street". Following the
resignation of Boris Johnson in July 2022, Streeter announced his support for
Rishi Sunak in the subsequent
July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. He became the seventh MP to publicly call for the resignation of Prime Minister
Liz Truss on 20 October. On 25 November 2022, he announced that he would not seek re-election at the
2024 general election. == Personal life ==