Stuart Anderson (politician)

Stuart Paul Anderson[1] (born 17 July 1976) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West since the 2019 general election.[2]

Stuart Anderson

MP
Anderson in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Wolverhampton South West
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byEleanor Smith
Majority1,661 (4.0%)
Personal details
Born (1976-07-17) 17 July 1976
Hereford, Herefordshire, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Websitewww.stuartanderson.org.uk
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1993–2001
UnitThe Royal Green Jackets

Early life

Anderson's father was in the Special Air Service (SAS) but died of a heart attack when he was young.[3] His mother worked as a nurse.[3]

Military service

Anderson joined the army straight out of school, and was shot in the leg during a training exercise when he was 17. A subsequent tour of Northern Ireland combined with the trauma of being shot led to severe alcohol dependency.[4] Subsequent tours of duty included Bosnia and Kosovo.[5]

Business career

After leaving the army, Anderson worked in close protection for high-profile clients in the UK, Africa, and the Middle East, including Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani.[3] He also ran security for US federal government officials in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[3]

Anubis Associates

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.

Anubis Associates collapsed in 2012, owing £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]

eTravelSafety

Following the collapse of his previous company, Anderson founded another start-up based on personal security, eTravelSafety,[10] 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.[11]

Political career

Herefordshire Council

Anderson joined the Conservative Party in 2016.[3] He was elected to Herefordshire Council in a by-election in October 2017,[12] although he failed to attend almost half of his first 13 scheduled council meetings.[13] He did not stand for re-election in May 2019.

House of Commons

Anderson was selected as the Conservative Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton South West in December 2018,[13] and 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.[14]

In January 2020, The Independent reported that Anderson's English Wikipedia page had been edited by an account named "Stuart Anderson MP" to remove potentially embarrassing material about the unlawful payments and the EU grant, as well as to make a minor correction about the directorship of one of his companies.[7]

Anderson is a member of the Defence Select Committee.

Political positions

During the 2019 general election campaign, Anderson repeatedly pledged his support for Boris Johnson's Brexit withdrawal agreement and said he would support a no-deal Brexit if Johnson's Withdrawal Agreement Bill were not passed.[15]

Anderson has never rebelled against the party whip, and on the vast majority of issues votes the same way as other Conservative MPs.[16] To date, the only exception was a free vote on a bill seeking to ban demonstrations outside abortion clinics, in which 56 Conservative MPs voted for the bill and 43 against, Anderson among them.[17]

Personal life

Anderson is married and has five children.[3] He is a member of the controversial evangelical Freedom Church,[18], and his former business eTravelSafety shares the same registered business address as Freedom Church Hereford.[19]

gollark: `type` calls it that, if I remember right, yes.
gollark: Oh, and bools.
gollark: Off the top of my head it has:- `number` (always double-precision floating points)- `coroutine` (basically a resumable function)- `function`- `string` (basically a bytestring)- `table` (vector/dict hybrid)- `userdata` (types defined in C code, CC doesn't use this)
gollark: You can use the `type` function.
gollark: It means "modulus" or "modulo" if you want to search it.

References
  1. "Statements of Persons Nominated Wolverhampton South West". City of Wolverhampton Council. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  2. "Wolverhampton South West parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. Madeley, Peter (8 February 2019). "Tory ex-Army sniper sets sights on Wolverhampton seat". Express & Star. Wolverhampton: Midland News Association. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  4. "MP highlights mental health plight in debut Commons speech". ITV News. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  5. "Global Britain". Hansard. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  6. Revill, John (23 July 2007). "SAS men crack the world of business". Birmingham Post. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via The Free Library. Anubis Associates, which was set up by Stuart Anderson, "Ginge" Johnson, Trevor Easley and Geoffrey Pagham, has enjoyed rapid growth over the last two years.
  7. Kentish, Benjamin (11 January 2020). "Tory Brexiteer MP appears to edit his own Wikipedia page to remove reference to EU grant and unlawful payments". The Independent. London. ISSN 0951-9467. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  8. Syal, Rajeev (22 November 2019). "Tory candidate got illegal dividend from firm that went bust". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media Group. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  9. "Candid Candidates". HP Sauce. Private Eye. No. 1511. London: Pressdram. 13 December 2019. p. 9. ISSN 0032-888X. The fund receives its backing from, er, the European Union [...] whatever the next government decides should happen to EU-funded programmes such as the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, at least eTravelSafety is now guaranteed its share of EU money. Hurrah for Brexit!
  10. "Travel security – protecting travellers in an uncertain world". Security News Desk. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  11. "The Register of Members' Financial Interests As at 26 May 2020". House of Commons. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  12. "Declaration of Result of Poll Kings Acre Ward Byelection" (PDF). Herefordshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  13. Garcia, Carmelo (19 February 2019). "Herefordshire councillor to stand as MP". Sunshine Radio. Hereford: Murfin Media. Retrieved 15 December 2019. Kings Acre ward councillor Stuart Anderson has been selected as the Conservative Party parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton South West. [...] As a county councillor, Anderson has missed five of the 13 meetings he was scheduled to attend since being elected, according to official records.
  14. Syal, Rajeev; Mason, Rowena (16 December 2019). "Who are the Conservatives' most controversial new MPs?". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media Group. ISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  15. Madeley, Peter (23 August 2019). "Tory chairman James Cleverly: We can thrive under no-deal Brexit". Express & Star. Wolverhampton: Midland News Association. Retrieved 15 December 2019. Wolverhampton South West parliamentary candidate Stuart Anderson, said: 'Wolverhampton will thrive, and will continue to go from strength to strength whether we have a deal of not. This is because the people here want to move forward with Brexit. We will be out of the EU on October 31 and we can have a brighter future than we have ever had before.'
  16. "Stuart Anderson MP, Wolverhampton South West". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  17. "Division 59, Demonstrations (Abortion Clinics)". Hansard. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  18. "Hereford". Songs of Praise. 29 October 2017. BBC. BBC One. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  19. Garcia, Carmelo (17 December 2019). "Former councillor is elected as Wolverhampton MP". Sunshine Radio. Hereford. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Eleanor Smith		 Member of Parliament
for Wolverhampton South West
2019–present		 Incumbent
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