Rob Butler (politician)

Robert Butler (born 19 June 1967) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury since the 2019 general election.

Not to be confused with Rab Butler.
Rob Butler

MP
Butler in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Aylesbury
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byDavid Lidington
Majority17,373 (28.7%)
Personal details
Born (1967-06-19) 19 June 1967[1]
Aylesbury, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative

Early life

Butler was born in 1967 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, as he stated in his victory speech at the 2019 election.[2] His earliest years were spent in Bedgrove, until his family moved to Bicester. He attended the University of Sheffield, where he studied French and Economics.[3]

Career

His professional life began as TV presenter at the BBC and later Channel 5, where he presented that channel's lunchtime news from its launch in 1997 until the end of 2004.[4] In 2005 he founded a communication and lobbying consultancy, which worked with large and small companies around the world,[5] such as the private healthcare company Bupa.[6] In 2010 he joined the lobbying firm Pagefield at its launch, as an associate partner[7] and he was still listed as a specialist partner in their senior advisory team at the time of the 2019 election.[8] During that time Pagefield worked with many different clients, including tobacco giants British American Tobacco[9] and Philip Morris International,[10] as well as multinational arms manufacturer BAE Systems, and the government of Azerbaijan, while its sister company Pagefield Global Counsel provides services to (amongst others) the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[11]

Prior to the election, Butler was also a director of Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

In 2019, Butler was elected to succeed Sir David Lidington as the Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. He was 52 at the time of his election.[3]

Parliamentary career

Brexit

Along with every Conservative candidate standing at the 2019 UK general election, Butler signed a personal pledge to support Boris Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement (WA). The MPs' pledges and the "oven-ready deal" were central tenets of the Conservative election campaign.[12]

Electoral history

2019 general election
General election 2019: Aylesbury[13]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Rob Butler 32,737 54.0 −1.0
Labour Liz Hind 15,364 25.4 −4.6
Liberal Democrats Steven Lambert 10,081 16.6 +7.0
Green Coral Simpson 2,394 4.0 +1.8
Majority 17,373 28.6 +3.6
Turnout 60,576 69.9 −1.3
Conservative hold Swing +1.8

References
  1. "Members' Names Data Platform query". UK Parliament. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  2. "Aylesbury parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News.
  3. "Meet your candidates: Conservative party for Aylesbury, Rob Butler". www.bucksherald.co.uk.
  4. Nessa MacErlean (16 September 2001). "When expertise is not enough". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  5. "About Rob Butler". Rob Butler MP.
  6. "Revealed: A fifth of new Tory MPs have worked as lobbyists". openDemocracy. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  7. "Former ITV and Camelot Board Director, Mark Gallagher, launches Pagefield | Pagefield". web.archive.org. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  8. "People - Pagefield". web.archive.org. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  9. Busby, Mattha (2 July 2020). "Tobacco firm funded attack on council quit-smoking services". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  10. "Pagefield - TobaccoTactics". tobaccotactics.org. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  11. "Boris Johnson's Ex-Advisor Works for a Lobbying Firm that Does PR for the Saudi War in Yemen". www.vice.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  12. "Conservative Manifesto 2019 | Conservatives". www.conservatives.com. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  13. "Ashford Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Lidington		 Member of Parliament for Aylesbury
2019–present		 Incumbent


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.