Bob Seely

From 1990 to 1994, Seely worked as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe as a stringer for The Times newspaper. He first visited what was then the USSR in early 1990, witnessing the first celebrations of Easter in western Ukraine since Soviet occupation after World War II, and also early Chernobyl disaster protests in Kiev that year. He filed an initial batch of reports and was invited by the newspaper to return permanently from 1990 to 1994.

During his tenure in the country, Seely reported from most of the republics or new nations: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia (including Nagorny Karabakh), Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. During this time, he made visits to the Balkans, including Sarajevo and Kosovo. He also wrote occasional articles for The Spectator and The Sunday Times.[6]

In the final year in the former USSR, Seely became a Special Correspondent for The Washington Post. He then spent a year in the United States writing a book, Deadly Embrace, on Russia's role in the Caucasus. During this time, he was a fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute. He returned to the UK to work for the Associated Press as a London-based reporter.[7]

In 2000 Seely moved briefly into politics. He worked at Conservative Central Office, heading up the foreign affairs team for Francis Maude; and he also worked briefly for Michael Howard and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

From 2005 to 2008 Seely worked for MTV Networks International.[8]

From 2008 onwards, Seely served in the UK Armed Forces.  He was mobilised or placed on Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) for nearly a decade until his selection as a parliamentary candidate in the 2017 election, at which time he resigned his full-time service and returned to the Army Reserve. He served on four UK operations: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS.[9]

As a sergeant, he was awarded a Joint Commanders Commendation in 2009 for his tour of Iraq and a Military MBE in the 2016 Operational Awards and Honours List.[10][11] He has since been commissioned.[12]

Seely has been a research associate at the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford.[13] He has contributed to the King's College War Studies blog,[14] Oxford Politics Department blog,[15] The Washington Post'''s social sciences blog,[16] Prospect magazine and RUSI Journal, published by the Royal United Services Institute.[17]

Seely at the 2017 General Election count at his Isle of Wight constituency

In 2005, Seely stood at the Broxtowe constituency but lost to the sitting Labour MP Nick Palmer by 2,296 votes.[20]

In 2013, he was voted to represent Central Wight on the Isle of Wight Council for the Conservatives and retained the seat in 2017. After the decision by sitting Conservative MP Andrew Turner to stand down at the 2017 general election, Seely was selected as the candidate for the Isle of Wight seat and gained 38,190 votes, representing 51.3% of the vote. He previously worked with Turner on the One Wight campaign, acting as campaign co-ordinator, in 2010.[21] During his campaign, he suggested that were he to be elected, he would campaign for improvements to the Island Line rail network.[22] He resigned as a county Councillor in late 2017.[23]

Seely is the sixth member of his paternal family to become a Member of Parliament, and the second to become the Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight.[24]

As of October 2020, Seely has spoken 183 times in Commons questions and debates.[25] The ‘They Work For You’website describes Seely as ‘an occasional rebel’.[26] Seely has voted against Government over the 10pm Covid curfew, and was one of the leaders of the Huawei rebellion in March 2020 that forced a change of direction in Government policy. He also led debates been campaigning for Government to make changes to propped housing and planning laws to improve the provision of affordable housing on the Island and to prevent greenfield sprawl.[27]

In his maiden speech, he called for a better deal for the Isle of Wight from Government.[28] Seely's speeches, in Hansard, are readable by an average 17–18 year old, going by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Levelscore.[29]

Seely's first vote as a Member of Parliament took place on 28 June 2017, where he voted against removing the pay cap for police and fire services. This was deemed controversial by some following his comments during his election campaign where he praised the emergency services following the fire at Grenfell Tower.[30]

On 12 July 2017 Seely established the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to promote the interests of islands around the UK to encourage MPs and Peers from all political parties to join together to lobby government for their respective islands. The group has engaged on a number of issues that affect islands, including healthcare, local government funding and supporting Island economies. He has called or participated in three separate Westminster Hall Parliamentary debates focusing on island issues, as part of the UK Islands APPG.[31]

Seely was appointed the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Ministerial team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in January 2019.[32][33] On 16 July 2019 Seely resigned from this position following his decision to vote against Government over HS2.[34][35]

On 31 May 2019, Seely wrote an article for CapX stating that he was supporting Michael Gove in his bid to become leader of the Conservative Party.[36]

In the 2019 general election, the Isle of Wight re-elected Seely as their Member of Parliament with an increased majority. Seely secured 56.2% of the votes cast.

In February 2018, he was elected by his Conservative colleagues to sit on the cross-party Foreign Affairs Select Committee, whose remit is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).[37] In July 2018 Seely was elected to the Committees on Arms Export Controls.[38]

In September 2018, in an article for ConservativeHome, Seely outlined the 10 measures the Security Minister Ben Wallace should consider in order to respond to and deter the "subversive activities of Russia". These included: creating a small, permanent multi-agency group to understand and expose foreign subversive activities, introduce a UK Foreign Agents Act to ensure PR agencies, reputation management firms and others who work as agents for foreign states are listed as such, changes to the UK visa regime, strengthen OFCOM powers and a Royal Commission to understand the threat to our electoral system by cyber infiltration and fake news.[39]

In October 2018, Seely hosted a press conference in parliament, in conjunction with the online investigative journalist website Bellingcat, to announce the identity of the second Skripal assassin suspect.[40][41] Seely placed Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, in the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society, where Mark Urban, who was working with Skripal up to a year before his poisoning, Sir Richard Dearlove, the ex-head of the British MI6, leaders of the Atlantic Council and James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA, congregate.[42]

He writes for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and the online sites ConservativeHome, CapX and the Spectator online on foreign affairs.[43]

Seely's manifesto, A Vision for the Island, was published a year after he entered parliament, in July 2018.[44] In it, Seely sets out how he believes that the Isle of Wight should develop over the coming decades.[45]

He outlines his top-ten goals as being to:

• Deliver increased numbers of genuinely affordable housing for Islanders, and especially young Islanders.
• At the same time, protect the landscape, severely limiting green field development and speculative development outside built-up areas
• Raise primary and secondary education standards, have fewer but better sixth forms and develop a higher education facility and campus
• Improve the integration of health and social care, ensure that the NHS on the Island is on a secure footing
• Use arts to drive inspiration, aspiration, education and regeneration
• Develop public transport (cycle and rail)
• Develop the Island's digital infrastructure and economy as part of a drive to attract high-quality jobs
• Encourage the ferry firms to support the Island better
• Improve the Island's visitor offer and develop high-quality tourism
• Extend the land covered by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty designation and look seriously at whether the Island should become a national park

On 11 February 2019, Seely co-authored a report on British foreign policy, post-Brexit, Global Britain: A Twenty-First Century Vision.[46] In it, Seely and co-author James Rogers recommended a restructuring of overseas policy. The recommendations were:

• Establish a National Strategy Council to oversee a National Global Strategy to better integrate the work of the FCO and MoD, among other parts of government.
• Integrate the Department of International trade and the Department for International Development into the FCO as agencies to improve integration in Whitehall.
• Structure British global policy around the promotion of three great, fundamental freedoms: Freedom for Trade, Freedom from Oppression, and Freedom of Thought.
• Strengthen greater cooperation with Australia, Canada and New Zealand (the so-called "CANZUK" group).
• Champion the international order by greater investment in the United Nations.
• Redefine the definition of international aid to allow the UK to fund an expanded BBC World Service and all Ministry of Defence peacekeeping operations.

In a June 2018, Seely produced once of the few comprehensive definitions of Russian hybrid war, in a paper entitled: "A Definition of Contemporary Russian Conflict: how does the Kremlin Wage War?"[47] The peer reviewed paper was produced by the Henry Jackson Society and presented in an event in the House of Commons on 4 June.[48]

Seely used the term "Contemporary Russian Conflict" to describe both the overt and covert forms of influence used by the Kremlin. He described modern Russian conflict as "a sophisticated and integrated form of state influence closely linked to political objectives. It has, at its core, the KGB toolkit of 'Active Measures' – political warfare – around which has been wrapped a full spectrum of state tools."[47]

In waging this form of conflict, Seely argued that Russia uses at least 50 specific tools and methods.

On 16 May 2019, Seely co-authored a first investigation into the Chinese tech giant Huawei and its possible role in the development of 5G.[49] The report, published in the Henry Jackson Society, was also authored by Peter Varnish and John Hemmings. It recommended barring Huawei from involvement in the UK's 5G infrastructure network. The report was endorsed by Sir Richard Dearlove, who led MI6 between 1999 and 2004, and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.[50]

The investigation concluded:

• Huawei was subordinate to China's 2017 National Intelligence Law and was obliged to assist China's intelligence agencies in operations, research and development. Despite claims to the contrary, it would be likely to be compelled to act in Beijing's interests by the CCP leadership.
• Huawei's claims to be a private company are highly problematic, as it is 98% owned by a trade union committee. Huawei acts like – and is treated like – a state-owned enterprise by Chinese state- banks.
• Huawei has on many occasions been accused of having an active or passive role in espionage and has worked with Chinese security forces in Xinjiang province, where many individuals are under surveillance or in re-education camps.
• Huawei should be treated as a high-risk vendor.

The report featured high on the news on the day of launch, including as one of the lead items on the BBC News.[51]

In July 2019, Seely co-authored a report into Surkov Leaks with Aliya Shandra. The report was entitled "The Surkov Leaks: The Inner Workings of Russia’s Hybrid War in Ukraine".[52]

Seely contributed to an April 2020 study examining the strategic trade dependency on China of the ‘Five Eyes’ group of nations: UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand The report was covered in The Times on 14 May 2020.[53]

The report coincided with a letter written by Seely and a group of UK Conservative MPs to request the Government be legally required to update Parliament annually on the UK’s strategic trade dependency on China and potentially other nations.[53] The letter — which cited the Henry Jackson Society report — was signed by 21 MPs.[53]

In early May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced that a contact-tracing app would be trialled on the Isle of Wight, a move strongly supported by Seely and for which he lobbied Government.[54][55] Prior to the lockdown, Seely spoke on several occasions to warn Ministers about the need for additional thought to ensure the emergency supply of the Island and threatened to amend legislation unless the Government acted. Shortly after, the Department of Transport, following work by Seely, the Isle of Wight Council and the Island’s Transport Infrastructure Board, announced an emergency package to support the Island.[56]

The app launch was successful, with tens of thousands downloading the app in the initial period, although some of which were from people off-island. Seely believed that after three weeks or so of the app’s use on the Island, approximately 55,000 Islanders had downloaded it out of 80,000 Islanders who were able to download the app, equating to a success rate of approximately 70 percent.[57]

In a subsequent article in the Conservative online site, Conservative Home, Seely argued that working with central Government to pilot national schemes was the best way to ensure the Isle of Wight was able to be at the cutting edge of innovative tech to improve quality of life on the Island, especially in healthcare.[55] He cited the use of drones to supply St Mary’s Hospital and money for the Island’s telemedicine project.

It subsequently emerged that on 22 May Seely had dropped into a small gathering in the village of Seaview to speak with Freddy Gray, deputy editor of The Spectator. Seely explained that he had done so to chat with Gray regarding a previous article by Grey on the app, but immediately apologised for his error of judgement.[58]

On 11 June The Times quoted Seely in a report that the NHS app may have had a role in suppressing the virus on the Isle of Wight. Seely told his local County Press newspaper that the analysis needed more research to ensure its accuracy. “In blunt terms,” he said, “this is the best evidence we may get that the app saved lives of Islanders,” Seely told the County Press.[59] On the same day, Seely spoke on a House of Commons debate on zoos, welcoming their reopening following the Covid-19 lockdown, and urging the UK Government to support zoos and animal sanctuaries on the Island.[60]