Aidan Burley (born 22 January 1979) is a British businessman, entrepreneur and former politician. He was

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament for

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase, often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase National Landscape, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and muc ...

between

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Early life

Burley was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and migrated with his parents to the United Kingdom a few months later. He was educated at West House School, a private school in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by Edward VI of England, King Edward VI in 1552, it ...

, where he stood and won as a Conservative in 1997 in the school's mock election and St John’s College, Oxford University.

Career

Burley was a

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

for

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

and later Hedra/

Mouchel Mouchel Group, originally known as L. G. Mouchel & Partners Ltd, was an infrastructure and business services company headquartered in Woking, United Kingdom. It provided advisory, design, project delivery and managed services associated with i ...

, working on contracts with the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

and the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. During this period, he also worked for Conservative MPs

Philip Hammond Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019 and Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, having previously served as Defence ...

and

Nick Herbert Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, Baron Herbert of South Downs, (born 7 April 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs from 2005 to 2019. He was Minister of State for Polic ...

when they were shadow ministers, and he was elected a Conservative

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

in 2006 for the Fulham Broadway ward of

Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, which styles itself Hammersmith and Fulham Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in ...

Parliamentary career

Burley was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

as Member of Parliament for

in the 2010 general election with a majority. of 3,195 achieving the largest swing of the election from Labour to the Conservatives, 14.01%. Burley was a member of the

Home Affairs Select Committee The Home Affairs Select Committee is a departmental select committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Remit The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select ...

from 2010 to 2011. Between 12 January 2011 and 17 December 2011 he was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the

Secretary of State for Transport The secretary of state for transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Departm ...

: firstly

, and later

Justine Greening Justine Greening (born 30 April 1969) is a British former politician who was the Secretary of State for Education from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, she was Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2011, Secretary of State for Transport f ...

. He is a supporter of the Free Enterprise Group. Burley was named by ''

ConservativeHome ConservativeHome is a politically conservative news website and events company. It was first established by Tim Montgomerie in 2005 with the aim of arguing for a broad conservative spectrum, which is serious about both social justice and a fair ...

'' as one of a minority of loyal Conservative backbench MPs not to have voted against the government in any significant rebellions. In 2014, Burley, along with six other Conservative Party MPs, voted against the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill, which would require all companies with more than 250 employees to declare the gap in pay between the average male and average female salaries.

Controversies

In December 2011, it was reported that Burley attended a

stag party A bachelor party (in the United States), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia and Canada), is a party held for or arranged by a man wh ...

Val Thorens Val Thorens () is a ski town in the Tarentaise Valley in the French Alps at an altitude of . It is located in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville in the Savoie department. The resort forms part of the Les Trois Vallées ski area which, ...

, France, where the groom wore a fancy dress

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

uniform and made a salute. Following this event, he expressed regret over the incident. Subsequently, Prime Minister David Cameron removed him from his parliamentary role due to additional allegations. An internal review by the Conservative Party concluded that, although Burley's actions were offensive, they did not demonstrate racism or

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. But in February 2014, Burley announced he would not seek reelection in 2015. During the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

, Burley criticized the event on Twitter for being overly left-leaning, later clarifying his comments were about its presentation. His remarks were criticized, including by fellow Conservative MP

Gavin Barwell Gavin Laurence Barwell, Baron Barwell (born 23 January 1972) is a British politician and former Downing Street Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament for Croydon Central ...

, who disapproved of his views. Burley also expressed concerns about the ceremony's overtly political content, writing "Bring back Shakespeare, Red Arrows and the Stones" on Twitter.

Political funding

It was reported in 2014 that the Cannock Chase

Conservative Association A Conservative Association (CA) is a local organisation composed of Conservative Party members in the United Kingdom. Every association varies in membership size but all correspond to a parliamentary constituency in England, Wales, Scotland and N ...

had received £28,927 since 2010, and that Burley had received corporate donations from

Japan Tobacco International JTI - Japan Tobacco International is the international tobacco division of Japan Tobacco (Global Fortune 500), one of the three largest international Big Tobacco product manufacturers. The holding company is JT International SA and headquartere ...

and JCB Research; he had also received a donation from

Conservative Friends of Israel Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is a British parliamentary group affiliated to the Conservative Party, which is dedicated to strengthening control over business, cultural and political ties between the United Kingdom and Israel, as well as ...

. He also received £3,600 in remunerations from Clever Together LLP for work he did in 2012.

Business

Burley co-founded online e-commerce subscription business Friction Free Shaving, known as the woman’s analogue to

Dollar Shave Club Dollar Shave Club, Inc. is an American company based in Venice, California, that delivers razors and other personal grooming products to customers by mail. It delivers razor blades on a monthly basis and offers additional grooming products fo ...

, which he set up in 2015 after leaving Parliament. As CEO Burley initiated and led funding rounds with £1.25m being invested from

Northern & Shell Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including '' Penthouse'' and '' ...

. Burley exited the business via a management buy out in 2023. In 2021 Burley joined WorldPR, a global Public Relations consultancy, where he worked as Chief of Staff to the Chairman.

References

External links

Aidan Burley MP
''official website''
Aidan Burley MP
Conservative Party profile
Aidan Burley profile
at

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

Your democracy *
Official channel
at YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Burley, Aidan 1979 births Living people Accenture people Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) councillors Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham Politicians from Auckland UK MPs 2010–2015 Reform UK politicians