Jacob was born in May 1969 and was brought up in Somerset at Ston Easton and Hinton Blewett. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for North East Somerset in 2010 and again in 2015 and 2017. He was re-elected in December 2019 with 50.4% of the vote and a majority of 14,729. Following the boundary changes which will come into force at the next general election, Jacob has been selected as the Conservative candidate for the new constituency of North East Somerset and Hanham.
In October 2022, Jacob resigned from the government so returned to the backbenches, after serving as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in Liz Truss' administration. This followed his time as Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency; after two and a half years as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. Jacob has previously been a Member of the Exiting the European Union Committee, the Treasury Select Committee, the Procedure Committee and the European Scrutiny Committee.
Jacob was educated at Eton before reading History at Trinity College Oxford, he then moved into finance being based in Hong Kong and later moving back to London. He set up his own company in 2007 with a group of Partners; it was called Somerset Capital Management (SCM) and specialised in investment management in global emerging markets for institutional clients. Jacob stopped working for SCM when he was appointed to the role of Leader of the Commons in July 2019, as Cabinet Ministers are not permitted to have second jobs. Jacob now presents 'State of the Nation' on GBNews, which runs from Monday to Thursday from 8-9pm.
Jacob lives in West Harptree with his wife Helena and their six children: Peter, Mary, Thomas, Anselm, Alfred and Sixtus. He is a Catholic and attends traditional Latin Mass. Jacob is a cricket enthusiast and has supported Somerset County Cricket Club since he was a child. He also has an interest in classic cars and owns a 1936 and a 1968 Bentley. Jacob was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.