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Richard Quentin Fuller (born 30 May 1962) is a British politician who has been Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury since November 2024, having previously served as the interim Chairman of the Conservative Party from July to November 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North Bedfordshire, formerly North East Bedfordshire, since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he represented
Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...
from
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 ...
to 2017. Fuller previously served as the
Economic Secretary to the Treasury The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is a junior ministerial post in HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury, ranked below the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster General a ...
from July to October 2022. In the 2024 Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(CBE) for political and public service. He had previously achieved prominence as leader of the Young Conservatives from 1985 to 1987.


Early life

Fuller was educated at Hazeldene School and Bedford Modern School (then a direct grant school), followed by University College, Oxford (1981–84), where he studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics, and Harvard Business School (1987–89) for his MBA. Fuller was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) in 1983. Following the failed nomination of Conservative candidates for the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), Oxford's student paper '' Cherwell'' ran the headline "OUCA falls apart" and Fuller lost a vote of confidence but remained in office. As President, Fuller also provided the first Conservative Party platform for the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
, then a proscribed terrorist organisation in then still
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
but not proscribed in the UK.


Professional career

Fuller joined the management consultancy company, LEK Consulting in 1984 as part of their first intake of university graduates. In 1986, Fuller transferred to Sydney to help establish the Australian practice of LEK. After Harvard Business School, he worked in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, before rejoining LEK in Australia and then working for two years on assignment with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) in Manila, Philippines. In 2000, he joined the alternative assets firm, Investcorp, to help establish their technology ventures group. Fuller joined the board of the Osborne Association, a New York-based charity working with offenders and ex-offenders in 2002. Fuller moved to the United States in 2004 and rejoined LEK in Los Angeles in 2007. He became a non-executive director of Impero Software prior to returning to Parliament in 2019.


Political career

Fuller joined the Conservative party and began delivering leaflets for Trevor Skeet, the MP for Bedford during the 1979 general election. As a Young Conservative Fuller became a member of the moderate ( Tory Reform Group) faction that controlled the National Young Conservatives, in opposition to Monday Club and libertarian elements attempting to wrest control of the movement.


Young Conservatives

Fuller was elected National Chairman of the Young Conservatives from 1985 to 1987, campaigning on social issues such as housing, changes to drugs policies as well as on tackling unemployment. Fuller continued the anti-apartheid policies initiated under previous YC chairmen Iain Picton, Phil Pedley and John Guthrie.


National YC Report on Infiltration & Extremism

The National YC Report was passed in 1984 under Phil Pedley's Chairmanship. Fuller resisted pressure from Conservative Central Office to withdraw support from Pedley who ( along with the BBC) was being sued by Harvey Proctor, Neil Hamilton and Gerald Howarth. When the BBC Governors suddenly intervened and ordered the trial be abandoned, Fuller voiced his concerns as to why the trial had been abruptly abandoned.Peter Fiddick and Dennis Barker, "BBC in crisis over libel case deal", ''The Guardian'', 20 October 1986 Concern grew over the actions of Malcolm McAlpine, a BBC Governor and a cousin of Alistair McAlpine, the treasurer of the Conservative Party. "He denied yesterday that he had promised Mr Hamilton that he could 'deliver' the governors behind a settlement." ''The Times'' reported that: "Mr Richard Fuller, YC Chairman and a member of the group which endorsed the infiltration report by 39 votes to one, pledged financial backing to Philip Pedley who announced he was fighting on."


Parliament

Fuller stood as the Conservative candidate for the Bedford constituency in the 2005 general election, losing to the incumbent Labour MP Patrick Hall. Fuller stood again for the Bedford constituency in the 2010 general election, and was elected to office on 6 May 2010, replacing Patrick Hall. He was re-elected in the 2015 general election, but lost to the Labour candidate in the 2017 general election. As MP, Fuller led successful campaigns to retain key services at Bedford Hospital and to enable the establishment of Bedford Free School. Fuller launched a venture fund to invest in local businesses and ran the Bedford Community Business School. In October 2014, Fuller was one of 39 Conservative MPs who voted in favour of recognising
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
. Fuller stood and won in North East Bedfordshire in the 2019 general election following Alistair Burt's decision to stand down after having the whip removed and then returned. Fuller was a member of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee from 2015 to 2017 and rejoined the Committee following the 2019 general election. Fuller played a leading role in the inquiry into the sale and acquisition of BHS and later proposed the first successful motion in th
House of Commons to recommend the removal of a knighthood
from former BHS owner Sir Philip Green. Fuller campaigned against the use of detention for immigration purposes achieving restrictions on the detention of pregnant women and co-authoring the 2015 report, "The Use of Immigration Detention in the UK" by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration. Fuller was one of 158 MPs who supported Brexit ahead of the 2016 EU Referendum. Fuller was appointed
Economic Secretary to the Treasury The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is a junior ministerial post in HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury, ranked below the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster General a ...
by outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, following the resignation of John Glen during the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis. He left this position following Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...
's first Cabinet reshuffle. He was replaced by Andrew Griffith MP. In 2023, he was reselected for the new North Bedfordshire constituency. Fuller was re-elected with a decreased majority of 5,414 votes. Following the Conservative defeat in the 2024 General Election, and the subsequent resignation of Richard Holden, Fuller was appointed by
Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...
to serve as interim Chairman of the Conservative Party for the remainder of his leadership.


References


External links


Richard Fuller MP
''official website''
Profile
at the Conservative Party * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Richard Living people 1962 births People educated at Bedford Modern School Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from Bedford Chairmen of the Conservative Party (UK) UK MPs 2010–2015 Alumni of University College, Oxford Presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Association Harvard Business School alumni Politics of the Borough of Bedford UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2019–2024 UK MPs 2024–present Conservative Friends of Palestine Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British Eurosceptics Shadow cabinet of Kemi Badenoch