Bob Seely

Seely was appointed the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Ministerial team at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in January 2019. On 16 July 2019 Seely resigned from this position following his decision to vote against Government over HS2.

On 31 May 2019, Seely wrote an article for CapX stating that he was supporting Michael Gove in his bid to become leader of the Conservative Party.

In the 2019 general election, the Isle of Wight re-elected Seely as their Member of Parliament with an increased majority. Seely secured 56.2% of the votes that were cast.

On 11 February 2019, Seely co-authored a major report on British foreign policy, post-Brexit, Global Britain: A Twenty-First Century Vision. In it, Seely and co-author James Rogers recommended a restructuring of overseas policy. The recommendations were:

On 16 May 2019, Seely co-authored a first major investigation into the Chinese tech giant Huawei and its possible role in the development of 5G. The report, published in the Henry Jackson Society, was also authored by Peter Varnish and John Hemmings. It recommended barring Huawei from involvement in the UK's 5G infrastructure network. The report was endorsed by Sir Richard Dearlove, who led MI6 between 1999 and 2004, and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Seely is a keen guitar player and in an article in Politics Home in March 2019 was noted as having an acoustic guitar on hand in to play whilst in his Westminster office. In the same article Seely was quoted as saying that "representing the island is like being married to the right woman".

Seely's manifesto, A Vision for the Island, was published a year after he entered parliament, in July 2018. In it, Seely sets out how he believes that the Isle of Wight should develop over the coming decades.

In February 2018, he was elected by his Conservative colleagues to sit on the cross-party Foreign Affairs Select Committee, whose remit is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

In July 2018 Seely was elected to the Committees on Arms Export Controls.

In June 2018, in a paper for the Henry Jackson Society titled "A Definition of Contemporary Russian Conflict: how does the Kremlin wage war?", Seely outlined the first comprehensive definition of the nature of modern Russian warfare. He proposes the term "Contemporary Russian Conflict" to describe both the overt and covert forms of influence used by the Kremlin. He described modern Russian conflict as "a sophisticated and integrated form of state influence closely linked to political objectives. It has, at its core, the KGB toolkit of 'Active Measures' – political warfare – around which has been wrapped a full spectrum of state tools. Such tools are overt and covert, conventional and non-conventional, and are used in a coordinated, efficient and, often, coercive fashion. It is holistic, opportunistic, and flexible. It is a strategic art, not purely a military art."

In September 2018, in an article for ConservativeHome, Seely outlined the 10 measures the Security Minister Ben Wallace should consider in order to respond to and deter the "subversive activities of Russia". These included: creating a small, permanent multi-agency group to understand and expose foreign subversive activities, introduce a UK Foreign Agents Act to ensure PR agencies, reputation management firms and others who work as agents for foreign states are listed as such, changes to the UK visa regime, strengthen OFCOM powers and a Royal Commission to understand the threat to our electoral system by cyber infiltration and fake news.

He is a keen swimmer and has swum the Solent twice for charity, most recently in August 2018 to raise funds for the West Wight Sports and Community Centre.

Seely is a strong supporter of LGBT rights. In July 2018 Seely took part in the parade for Isle of Wight Pride, where he was joined by Conchita Wurst. In an interview with Pink News following the event, Seely stated that he felt that "for dictators, gays are the new Jews".

On 30 December 2018 Seely wrote an article for Conservative Home expressing his concern over the Chinese State ownership of the dating app Grindr, stating that "The Chinese state very likely now has access to highly sensitive sexual information relating to the 3.1 million people who date on it daily."

Seely's first vote as a Member of Parliament took place on 28 June 2017, where he voted against removing the pay cap for police and fire services. This was deemed controversial by some following his comments during his election campaign where he praised the emergency services following the fire at Grenfell Tower.

On 12 July 2017 Seely established the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to promote the interests of islands around the UK to encourage MPs and Peers from all political parties to join together to lobby government for their respective islands. The group has engaged on a number of issues that affect islands, including healthcare, local government funding and supporting Island economies. He has called or participated in three separate Westminster Hall Parliamentary debates focusing on island issues, as part of the UK Islands APPG.

In 2013, he was voted to represent Central Wight on the Isle of Wight Council for the Conservatives and retained the seat in 2017. After the decision by sitting Conservative MP Andrew Turner to stand down at the 2017 general election, Seely was selected as the candidate for the Isle of Wight seat and gained 38,190 votes, representing 51.3% of the vote. He previously worked with Turner on the One Wight campaign, acting as campaign co-ordinator, in 2010. During his campaign, he suggested that were he to be elected, he would campaign for improvements to the Island Line rail network. He resigned as a county Councillor in late 2017.

Since entering Parliament Seely has spoken in 37 debates - which is average in comparison to other MPs. In his maiden speech, he called for a better deal for the Isle of Wight from Government. Seely's speeches, in Hansard, are readable by an average 17–18 year old, going by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Levelscore.

As a British Army Sergeant, he was awarded a Joint Commanders Commendation in 2009 for his tour of Iraq and a Military MBE in the 2016 Operational Awards and Honours List. He has since been commissioned.

From 2008 onwards, Seely served in the UK Armed Forces.  He was mobilised or placed on Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) for nearly a decade until his selection as a parliamentary candidate in the 2017 election, at which time he resigned his full-time service and returned to the Army Reserve. He has served on the four major UK operations: Iraq. Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS.

From 2005 to 2008 Seely worked for MTV Networks International.

In 2005, Seely stood at the Broxtowe constituency but lost to the sitting Labour MP Nick Palmer by 2,296 votes.

In 2000 Seely moved briefly into politics. He worked at Conservative Central Office, heading up the foreign affairs team for Francis Maude; and he also worked briefly for Michael Howard and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

Seely's political career began as a personal assistant to Shaun Woodward, until Woodward's defection to the Labour Party in 1999. Following this he worked at Conservative Central Office as an adviser of foreign affairs to Michael Howard, Francis Maude and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

From 1990 to 1994, Seely worked as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe as a stringer for The Times newspaper. He first visited what was then the USSR in early 1990, witnessing the first celebrations of Easter in western Ukraine since Soviet occupation after World War II, and also early Chernobyl disaster protests in Kiev that year. He filed an initial batch of reports and was invited by the newspaper to return permanently from 1990 to 1994. During his tenure in the country, Seely reported from most of the republics or new nations: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia (including Nagorny Karabakh), Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. During this time, he made visits to the Balkans, including Sarajevo and Kosovo. He also wrote occasional articles for The Spectator and The Sunday Times.

Captain Robert William Henry Seely MBE (born 1 June 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Isle of Wight since June 2017. He was re-elected at the general election in December 2019 with an increased vote and majority.

Seely was born to an English father and German mother, and was educated at Arnold House School and Harrow. He comes from a long line of family members involved in politics on the Isle of Wight and elsewhere in the country. Seely's great-great-uncle, General Jack Seely, was MP for the Isle of Wight between 1900 and 1906 and again between 1923 and 1924, in between which time he served in the First World War – including leading one of the last great cavalry charges in history at the Battle of Moreuil Wood on his war horse Warrior. Seely lives in the west of the Isle of Wight near the village of Brighstone.