Bob Seely


Robert William Henry Seely is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament 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. He lives near Brighstone on the Isle of Wight.

Early life and career

Seely was educated in north London at Arnold House School and Harrow School.

Journalism, policy and media

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, 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.
In the final year in the former USSR, Seely became a Special Correspondent for The Washington Post. He then spent a year in the United States writing a book, Deadly Embrace'', on Russia's role in the Caucasus. During this time, he was a fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute. He returned to the UK to work for the Associated Press as a London-based reporter.
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.
From 2005 to 2008 Seely worked for MTV Networks International.

Military

From 2008 onwards, Seely served in the UK Armed Forces.  He was mobilised or placed on Full Time Reserve Service 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 served on four UK operations: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS.
As a British Army Captain, 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.

Academia

Seely has been a research associate at the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford. He has contributed to the King's College War Studies blog, Oxford Politics Department blog, The Washington Posts social sciences blog, Prospect magazine and RUSI Journal'', published by the Royal United Services Institute.

Political career

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.

Elections

In 2005, Seely stood at the Broxtowe constituency but lost to the sitting Labour MP Nick Palmer by 2,296 votes.
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.
Seely is the sixth member of his paternal family to become a Member of Parliament, and the second to become the Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight.

In Parliament

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.
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 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.
Seely was appointed the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary 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 cast.

Committees and foreign affairs

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.
In July 2018 Seely was elected to the Committees on Arms Export Controls.
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.
In October 2018, Seely hosted a press conference in parliament, in conjunction with the online investigative journalist website Bellingcat, to announce the identity of the second Skripal assassin suspect.
He writes for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and the online sites ConservativeHome, CapX and the Spectator online on foreign affairs.

Island Manifesto

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.
He outlines his top-ten goals as being to:
On 11 February 2019, Seely co-authored a 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:
In a June 2018, Seely produced once of the few comprehensive definitions of Russian hybrid war, in a paper entitled: "A Definition of Contemporary Russian Conflict: how does the Kremlin Wage War?" The peer reviewed paper was produced by the Henry Jackson Society and presented in an event in the House of Commons on 4 June.
Seely used 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."
In waging this form of conflict, Seely argued that Russia uses at least 50 specific tools and methods. The report was denounced by the Russian state broadcaster, RT, which described the report as an “attempt to foster Russophobia by publishing anti-Kremlin propaganda masquerading as a peer-reviewed study.

Investigation into Huawei

On 16 May 2019, Seely co-authored a first 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.
The investigation concluded:
The report featured high on the news on the day of launch, including as one of the lead items on the BBC News.

Surkov Leaks Report

In July 2019, Seely co-authored a report into Surkov Leaks with Aliya Shandra. The report was entitled "The Surkov Leaks: The Inner Workings of Russia’s Hybrid War in Ukraine".

Breaking the China Supply Chain report

Seely contributed to an April 2020 study examining the strategic trade dependency on China of the ‘Five Eyes’ group of nations: UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand The report was covered in The Times on 14 May 2020.
The report coincided with a letter written by Seely and a group of UK Conservative MPs to request the Government be legally required to update Parliament annually on the UK’s strategic trade dependency on China and potentially other nations. The letter — which cited the Henry Jackson Society report — was signed by 21 MPs.

Coronavirus pandemic

In early May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced that a contact-tracing app would be trialled on the Isle of Wight, a move strongly supported by Seely and for which he lobbied Government. Prior to the lockdown, Seely spoke on several occasions to warn Ministers about the need for additional thought to ensure the emergency supply of the Island and threatened to amend legislation unless the Government acted. Shortly after, the Department of Transport, following work by Seely, the Isle of Wight Council and the Island’s Transport Infrastructure Board, announced an emergency package to support the Island.
The app launch was successful, with tens of thousands downloading the app in the initial period, although some of which were from people off-island. Seely believed that after three weeks or so of the app’s use on the Island, approximately 55,000 Islanders had downloaded it out of 80,000 Islanders who were able to download the app, equating to a success rate of approximately 70 percent.
In a subsequent article in the Conservative online site, Conservative Home, Seely argued that working with central Government to pilot national schemes was the best way to ensure the Isle of Wight was able to be at the cutting edge of innovative tech to improve quality of life on the Island, especially in healthcare. He cited the use of drones to supply St Mary’s Hospital and money for the Island’s telemedicine project.
It subsequently emerged that on 22 May Seely had dropped into a small gathering in the village of Seaview to speak with Freddy Gray, deputy editor of The Spectator. Seely explained that he had done so to chat with Gray regarding a previous article by Grey on the app, but immediately apologised for his error of judgement.
On 11 June The Times quoted Seely in a report that the NHS app may have had a role in suppressing the virus on the Isle of Wight. Seely told his local County Press newspaper that the analysis needed more research to ensure its accuracy. “In blunt terms,” he said, “this is the best evidence we may get that the app saved lives of Islanders,” Seely told the County Press. On the same day, Seely spoke on a House of Commons debate on zoos, welcoming their reopening following the Covid-19 lockdown, and urging the UK Government to support zoos and animal sanctuaries on the Island.

Personal life

Seely was born to an English father and German mother, and was educated in London at Arnold House School and Harrow. He comes from a family long 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.
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 is a keen guitar player and in an article in Politics Home in March 2019 was noted as having an acoustic guitar on hand 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".

Honours

Member of the Order of the British Empire 2016
Iraq Medal
OSM for Afghanistan
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal2012