Bob Blackman

He is the recipient of India's highly prestigious award Padma Shri 2020 for his work in the field of public affairs.

In March 2019, Blackman was among a group of MPs who argued for a number of measures to encourage people to quit smoking and prevent young people from taking it up, including raising the legal smoking age to 21 and introducing a levy on large tobacco companies.

In August 2019, Blackman expressed his support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoking Article 370 of the Constitution of India, calling the article an "anomaly", adding that "Kashmiri Pandits must be guaranteed right of return after they were the victims of ethnic cleansing".

In March 2019, Blackman was one of 21 MPs who voted against LGBT inclusive sex and relationship education in English schools.

Blackman has been accused of stirring up racial tensions as a result of racial bias for hosting Tapan Gosh, an anti-Islam campaigner from India at a House of Commons event in October 2017, as well as sharing Islamophobic posts on Twitter by far-right activist Tommy Robinson and being a member of numerous anti-Islam groups on Facebook. These comments and others by Conservative candidates and representatives led the Muslim Council of Britain to call for an independent inquiry into alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.

In 2016, he was drawn second in the annual Parliamentary ballot for a Private Member's Bill and subsequently put together a Homelessness Reduction Bill in partnership with national homelessness charity, Crisis. It was the first Private Member's Bill to be supported by a Select Committee. After receiving Government support at 2nd Reading, it passed through all stages in Parliament unopposed in both Houses and received Royal Assent on Thursday 27 April 2017.

In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation". According to Parliament's register of interests, Blackman was one of 72 Conservative MPs voting against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative Government had responded to the amendment that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.

Blackman supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum. He subsequently joined the European Research Group – the primary Eurosceptic lobbying group within Parliament, which is currently chaired by Jacob Rees-Mogg.

In 2015, the Compliance Officer for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) made a judgement that Blackman had submitted 732 inaccurate mileage claims. According to IPSA he claimed up to 10 miles for a 2-mile journey, making him the highest mileage MP, claiming almost twice the mileage as the 10 next highest MPs.

Blackman called for the adoption of plain packaging legislation for cigarettes, and supported Cameron's plan calling for energy companies to provide simplified energy bills to their customers. On 1 July 2015, Blackman was elected Chair of the All Party Political Group on Smoking and Health, after serving as its Secretary for several years.

In December 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron announced his approval for same-sex marriage. In response, on 7 December 2012, Blackman told the BBC News Channel that David Cameron's backing of religious same-sex marriages was wrong "on principle" and that marriage had to be "between one man and one woman". According to the Harrow Times, he was accused of hypocrisy by a former fellow Brent council colleague who claimed she had an 11-year affair with him whilst he was married. On 5 February 2013, Bob Blackman voted against the bill in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on marriage equality in Britain. In 2012, when the Conservative Party launched its consultation into legalising same-sex marriages, Blackman suggested that David Cameron should resurrect Section 28, stating that he strongly believed that "Section 28 was the right rules to have in school so that we should not in any way shape or form promote same-sex relationships" and said he would be "very opposed" to seeing teachers being forced to say same-sex relationships are equivalent to heterosexual relationships.

In the 2010 general election, Blackman gained the Harrow East constituency from Labour's Tony McNulty. He was subsequently re-elected in 2015 and 2017.

In 2010 he was elected a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee. and was elected Secretary of the 1922 Committee in 2015. In Parliament, Blackman currently serves on the Procedure Committee, the Backbench Business Committee and the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee.

He unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative Party candidate for the constituency seat of Brent and Harrow of the London Assembly at the 2000 elections, losing to the Labour Party candidate Toby Harris. However, he subsequently defeated Harris at the 2004 assembly elections and was elected as the Conservative's Group Whip on the London Assembly. In the 2008 elections, Blackman lost his seat to the Labour candidate, Navin Shah by a 1,649 votes.

In 2000, it was made public that Blackman had had an 11-year affair (which began in the late 80s) with a colleague he met whilst working as a councillor at the Brent East Conservative Association. His then mistress, Carol Shaw, gave an affidavit about their affair to a solicitor in 2000 - after being persuaded to do so by one of Blackman's rivals who hoped to see him ousted as a group leader. The affidavit was copied and distributed amongst his fellow Conservative councillors by the rival. Blackman is married to former Conservative Party councillor Nicola Blackman, and the couple live in Wembley. He employs his wife as a part-time office manager on a salary up to £39,999.

He unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative Party parliamentary candidate for Brent South at the 1992 election, for Bedford at the 1997 election, and for Brent North at the 2005 election.

Blackman unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Tokyngton ward of London Borough of Brent Council in 1986. Four years later, he stood in the Preston ward and was elected; he retained the seat until 2010, when he did not stand. He was the leader of the Conservative group on Brent council from 1990 to 2010, having been council leader between 1991 and 1996, when his party lost control of the Council. From June 2006 to May 2010, he was Deputy Leader of Brent Council, the Conservatives having formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Robert John Blackman (born 26 April 1956) is a Conservative Party politician serving as the Executive Secretary of the 1922 Committee since 2012 (serving jointly with Nigel Evans until 8 January 2020 when Nigel became 2nd Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means), and has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. He was also the Greater London Assembly member for Brent & Harrow between 2004 and 2008.