Andrew Rosindell

Andrew Richard Rosindell (born 17 March 1966) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Romford constituency in Greater London since 2001.

He is a member of the Conservative Party.

He has been the international director of the European Foundation, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Flags and Heraldry Committee and the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on the British Overseas Territories.

Rosindell holds socially conservative and Eurosceptic political views.

Before becoming an MP, he was a local councillor in Romford on Havering Council, winning the Chase Cross and Havering-atte-Bower ward from the Liberal Democrats in 1990 with a 25% swing.

After unsuccessful attempts in Glasgow Provan (a safe seat for the Labour Party) in 1992 and Thurrock in 1997, Rosindell was elected to the House of Commons at the 2001 general election for Romford, defeating the former teacher and incumbent Labour MP Eileen Gordon.

Rosindell won 18,931 votes (53% share), a swing of 9.2% from Labour to Conservative.

This was a tactic Rosindell had employed in previous elections, such as his unsuccessful campaign in Glasgow Provan in 1992.

He was chairman of the Young Conservatives from 1993 to 1994, chairman of the International Young Democrat Union from 1998 to 2002, and from 1997 to 2001, he was director of the European Foundation think tank.

It was one of just nine seats the Conservatives managed to regain after the 1997 Labour landslide at the 2001 election.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the constituency during the campaign, in which Rosindell also canvassed with his Staffordshire Bull Terrier Spike, who wore a union flag waistcoat.

In 1998, he held the council seat and took an 88% share of the vote.

This was the highest share of the vote by a Conservative at the local elections in Greater London.

Rosindell was appointed by Michael Howard to be vice-chairman for Campaigning of the Conservative Party in 2004, and in December 2005 he became an Opposition Whip.

At the 2005 election, Rosindell increased his majority to 11,589, winning 21,560 votes on a 59.1% share.

This was the second highest Conservative share of the vote anywhere in the UK.

At the beginning of the MPs' expenses scandal, The Daily Telegraph reported that Rosindell "claimed more than £125,000 in second home expenses for a flat in London, while designating his childhood home 17 miles away – where his mother lived – as his main address", and between "2006 and 2008 claimed the maximum £400 a month for food".

In July 2007, he was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, with particular responsibility for animal welfare.

In 2010, the BBC reported that Rosindell had breached Parliamentary rules by accepting subsidised overseas trips to Gibraltar and subsequently raising multiple Gibraltar-related issues in Parliament without disclosing the trips in the Register of Members' Interests.

At the 2010 election, Rosindell increased his majority to 16,594, winning 26,031 votes on a reduced 56.0% share.

In September of that year, Rosindell sponsored the first Erotica event to be held in the Houses of Parliament.

Rosindell maintained that he was promoting the hosts, a Romford-based business, as was his duty as the constituency MP.

In June 2012, Rosindell was criticised for expressing "huge admiration" for former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.

The comments were condemned by Labour Leader Ed Miliband MP and neighbouring Labour MP Jon Cruddas, who stated in an interview with the Romford Recorder that "Augusto Pinochet assumed power in a coup d'état and overthrew a democratically elected government. According to various reports and investigations thousands of people were killed in this process, and tens of thousands were interned and tortured by his regime".

Rosindell made the comments whilst defending a local colleague who had been criticised for apparently endorsing Pinochet, and stated that Pinochet had overthrown a "far worse" communist regime and that "we should be grateful" for the assistance Pinochet's Chile provided to the British forces retaking the Falkland Islands.

In February 2015, Rosindell cast doubt on the ability of Rachel Reeves (then Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) to handle that ministerial responsibility in a putative post-election Labour cabinet, as she would be taking maternity leave soon after the election and would then have a young child to care for following her return to the post in September.

He was criticised for the remarks by Labour MPs, whilst Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron described his comments as "outrageous".

At the 2015 election Rosindell was re-elected with 25,067 votes, on a 51% share, and also gained re-election to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Since the start of 2016, Rosindell has also been a member of the Advisory Board of the UK-based 'Polar Regions' think-tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

At the 2017 election Rosindell was re-elected with 29,671 votes, on a 59.4% share.

In 2017, Rosindell co-sponsored a Bill with Lord Empey to use Libyan funds frozen under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, to compensate victims of IRA terrorism supported by the Gaddafi regime.

On 4 July 2018, Rosindell announced his bid to become the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London at the 2020 mayoral election.

He failed to make the final shortlist.

Rosindell campaigned for Brexit and was one of the 28 original Conservative MPs who rebelled against Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in 2019.

Rosindell was born in Romford, Greater London, as the son of a school dinner lady.

Rosindell attended Marshalls Park School.

He joined the Conservative Party at the age of 14.

In January 2019, The Times discovered that Rosindell's Facebook account was a member of a group supporting far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

The group was specifically concerned with supporting Robinson after he was jailed for contempt of court.

Rosindell said that he had been added to the group without his knowledge; however, according to The Times, it would be necessary for a Facebook user to confirm acceptance before being added to a group.