Bob Seely

Robert William Henry Seely (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.

Seely was born on 1 June 1966 in Marylebone, London.

He was educated in North London at Arnold House School and Harrow School, and studied at King's College London.

Seely served as both an NCO and officer in the UK Armed Forces.

From 1990 to 1995, he worked as a foreign correspondent in the USSR/post-Soviet states.

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 on foreign affairs to Michael Howard, Francis Maude and Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

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

From 2008 to 2017, he served in the British Armed Forces on the Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS campaigns.

As a sergeant in the British Army, he was awarded a Joint Commanders Commendation in 2009 for his tour in Iraq.

He then served on the Afghanistan, Libya and ISIS campaigns.

Seely was later commissioned as an officer.

In 2013, he was elected for the Central Wight ward on the Isle of Wight Council for the Conservatives, and retained the seat in 2017.

Seely was awarded the Military MBE in the 2016 Operational Awards and Honours List whilst serving in the Intelligence Corps.

Seely has been a research associate at the Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford.

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.

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.

In the 2017 United Kingdom general election which returned Theresa May to office, Seely gained 38,190 votes, which was 51.3% of the vote.

Seely's first vote as a Member of Parliament took place on 28 June 2017, where he voted against removing a 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) for UK Islands, to promote the interests of islands around the UK.

The APPG aimed to encourage MPs and Peers from all political parties to join together to lobby government for their respective islands.

In June 2018 Seely produced a definition 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.

In October 2018 BBC News Online reported that Seely had accepted two free overseas trips abroad costing £4,410, which included a trip to Bahrain paid for by its government.

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 was re-elected at the general election in December 2019 with an increased vote and majority.

Seely is a former journalist and soldier.

On 16 May 2019 Seely co-authored, with Peter Varnish and John Hemmings, an investigation into the Chinese tech giant Huawei and its possible role in the development of 5G.

The report, published by the Henry Jackson Society, recommended barring Huawei from involvement in the UK's 5G infrastructure network.

The report was endorsed by both Sir Richard Dearlove and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

In July 2019 Seely wrote for the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) on the Surkov leaks, analysing the leaked emails to provide "a guide to Russian subversive warfare".

Seely argued that: "Russia's modern practice of political subversion can be understood as a reinvention of 'active measures', a form of political conflict pioneered by the Soviet Union."

Seely's PhD in International Security Studies was awarded by King’s College, London, in April 2022 for a thesis entitled: "Uniting Ways of War for Perpetual Conflict, An Examination of Contemporary Russian Warfare".

In the 2019 general election which saw Boris Johnson elected Prime Minister, Seely was re-elected with 56.2% of the votes cast.

In his maiden speech, Seely called for a better deal for the Isle of Wight from government.

The "They Work For You" website describes Seely as "an occasional rebel".

Seely has voted against Government over the 10pm Covid curfew.

He also campaigned for the government to make changes to proposed housing and planning laws, to improve the provision of affordable housing and to prevent greenfield sprawl.