Stuart Anderson (politician)

In 2005, Anderson co-founded Anubis Associates in Herefordshire.[6][3][7] The company offered courses in close protection training, "operational protection" for corporate VIPs, and "discreet personal protection" and consultancy services for petrochemical groups, financial institutions and stadiums. For six years during the War on Terror Anubis had "quite a sensitive" government contract to provide Five Eyes training.[4]

Anubis Associates collapsed in 2012, which Anderson attributes to the end of the War on Terror. He describes himself as having gone from a "paper millionaire" to being in receipt of food parcels within a month.[4] At the time of its collapse, Anubis Associates owed £271,000 in unpaid tax.[8] Administrators noted that Anderson, a director and major shareholder, had received £54,000 in illegal dividends[8] "based on forecasted profits for a future period" that never materialised.[9] Ordered to repay the money in full, Anderson only offered £2,000, arguing that he might otherwise go personally bankrupt.[8] Anderson said that he lost his house and ended up needing to use a food bank as a result, stating, "It was painful, but I have never hid away from what happened and have spoken many times about it."[10]

Within a week of the collapse of his previous company,[4] Anderson founded another start-up based on personal security, eTravelSafety,[11] of which he was "currently operating as CEO" at the time of the 2019 United Kingdom general election, according to his LinkedIn page.[9] In December 2019 Private Eye reported that despite Anderson's professed enthusiasm for Brexit, his company had received £500,000 from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund,[9] a government fund which receives its financial backing from the European Union, with £79 million coming from the European Development Fund and £123 million from the European Investment Bank. The article also noted that whatever the next government decides should happen to EU-funded programmes such as the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, eTravelSafety was now guaranteed its share of EU money.[9]

According to Anderson's entry in The Register of Members' Financial Interests, on 27 February 2020, his shareholding in eTravelSafety was not more than 15% and, on 18 May 2020, his shareholdings were no longer valued at more than £70,000.[12]

Anderson was elected to Herefordshire Council in a by-election in October 2017,[13] although he failed to attend almost half of his first 13 scheduled council meetings.[14] He did not stand for re-election in May 2019.

Anderson was selected as the Conservative Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton South West in December 2018,[14] and after moving there he contested the 2019 UK general election as its candidate.[1] He won the seat by 1,661 votes.[2] Following the election he was named by The Guardian as one of the seven "most controversial" new Conservative MPs, due to his receipt of an illegal dividend as a director of a now defunct company.[15]

Anderson initially found speaking in Parliament daunting as there were some "seasoned boys" there. He says that two of the things that stood out to him in Parliament were influence and access – how he can get an appointment with anyone he wants. An example he gives is about how someone senior in an aerospace company offered to take him to dinner; a kind of meeting he was never able to get during his business career.[4]

In January 2020, The Independent reported that Anderson appeared to have edited his own Wikipedia article (with an account named "Stuart Anderson MP") to remove information about the unlawful payments he had accepted and make a minor correction about the directorship of one of his companies.[7]

Anderson is a member of the Defence Select Committee.

During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anderson criticised his government's imposition of tier 2 local lockdown measures on Wolverhampton, saying, "As a city we are unified in the view that we don't want these new measures, as we believe they are unfair and won't make a difference".[16]

In October 2020, Anderson voted against an opposition day motion calling on the government to continue funding free school meals for children over the school holidays until Easter 2021 to prevent over 1 million children going hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anderson said he opposed the motion as he believed it was "the role of the wider welfare system to help families that require extra support" outside school term, pointing out that the government had temporarily increased Universal Credit by £20 a week until April 2021,[17] although he abstained on a later opposition day motion calling on the government to stop the planned cut in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit in April and give certainty to the six million families for whom it was worth an extra £1,000 a year.[18] Following the vote, empty plates were left outside his constituency office in protest.[19] Anderson said that he had received death threats following the vote, stating, "I've been told to watch myself if I turn up anywhere. Other MPs have had a lot worse than me and some are afraid to go outside their house at the moment."[20] The following month the government U-turned on the policy,[21] which Anderson welcomed.[22]

Following the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, MPs have been under more scrutiny for their expenses claims. Expenses claims by Anderson notable enough to have attracted media comment include £60.42 on Grammarly software,[23] and £4,108 for accommodation, including rent, constituency home Council Tax, gas and electricity for his constituency home, and staying in a London hotel to attend Parliament.[24]