Bob Stewart (politician)

Colonel Robert Alexander Stewart, DSO (born 7 July 1949) is a British politician. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Beckenham since 2010.[4] A member of the Conservative Party, he also is a former British Army officer and United Nations commander in Bosnia,[5] commentator, author and public speaker.[6]

This article is about the Member of Parliament for Beckenham. For other people with the same name, see Bob Stewart.

Colonel The Right Honourable
Bob Stewart
DSO MP
Official portrait, 2020
Member of Parliament
for Beckenham
Assumed office
6 May 2010[1]
Preceded byJacqui Lait
Majority14,258 (28.2%)
Personal details
Born
Robert Alexander Stewart[2]

(1949-07-07) 7 July 1949[3]
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
SpouseClaire Podbielski
Children6
Alma materRoyal Military Academy Sandhurst
Websitewww.bobstewart.org.uk
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service British Army
Years of service1967–1996
RankColonel
Commands1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
Battles/warsThe Troubles

Bosnian War

AwardsDistinguished Service Order
Service number487588

Early life

Stewart was born on 7 July 1949 to a father serving in the military. He was privately educated at Chigwell School, followed by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst near Camberley in Surrey. He spent part of his childhood in Cyprus.[7]

Military career

Stewart was accepted for officer training at the age of seventeen, and after two years of training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment as a second lieutenant on 25 July 1969. His service number was 487588.[8] He was promoted to lieutenant on 25 January 1971.[9] In 1974 he undertook an in-service Bachelor's degree in International Politics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating with first class honours.[10][11] He was promoted captain on 25 July 1975.[12]

Career in Northern Ireland

From 1977 Stewart served in Northern Ireland both as intelligence officer and, after attending Staff College, Camberley and promotion to major on 30 September 1981, company commander of A Company 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment, with an intermediate period spent at Sandhurst as an instructor.[10][13] During his time in Northern Ireland he was the Incident Commander at the Droppin Well bombing in Ballykelly which killed seventeen people.[14] Stewart heard the explosion and arrived at the scene two or three minutes later. Six of the dead soldiers were from his company, including his clerk and storeman.[15] He received a personal commendation from the general commanding in Northern Ireland for his actions on the day.[10]

In 2017 Stewart spoke of using[16] and authorising now forbidden deep-interrogation techniques during his time in Northern Ireland.[17]

Bosnia

Stewart served in the Ministry of Defence, and was second-in-command of an infantry battalion. He was promoted lieutenant colonel on 31 December 1987,[18] and served as a military attaché to the NATO military committee in Brussels.[19] In March 1991 he assumed command of the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment,[20] and as commanding officer returned to Northern Ireland for a further two operational tours and then became the first British Commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia from September 1992 to May 1993. It was as commanding officer in Bosnia, as part of Operation Grapple, that he earned the nickname "Bosnia Bob" and became something of a media personality.[21]

During his time in Bosnia he discovered the Ahmići massacre in which 103 people had been killed.[22] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 12 June 1993 on his return to the United Kingdom.[23] He was promoted colonel on 31 December 1993,[24] and went on to take up the position of Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe,[10] before officially retiring from the army on 1 February 1996.[25]

Career after the army

In 1997 Stewart took three weeks' leave from the public relations company Hill & Knowlton to help his friend Martin Bell who was standing for Parliament in Tatton as an Independent candidate. Stewart was alongside Bell when they were confronted by the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency, Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine on Knutsford Heath.[26] Bell, who was opposing Hamilton as a result of accusations that Hamilton had accepted money for promoting causes in Parliament, gave Stewart the credit for defining his criticism of Hamilton as having already admitted to "conduct unbecoming".[27]

Since leaving the army Stewart has become a well-known commentator upon military and political affairs, frequently commenting upon the defence policy of the British Government and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.[28] In 2009 he condemned the system compensating injured soldiers, accusing the MOD of acting with "the speed of a striking sloth".[5][29][30] He also accused the government of repeatedly refusing the requests of army commanders for more troops and more helicopters in Afghanistan.[31]

Political career

On 28 July 2009, it was revealed that Stewart had been approved to put himself forward for selection to constituency associations as a PPC for the Conservative Party. As the former commander of the Cheshire Regiment he was linked to the safe Conservative East Cheshire seats of Macclesfield and Congleton,[32][33] however the final shortlists for Macclesfield and for Congleton from Conservative Central Office did not contain his name. In summer 2009 he was shortlisted for Beckenham, one of the safest Conservative seats in the country,[34] and on 6 December it was announced that he had been selected as Conservative candidate there, winning an overall majority on the second ballot.[35]

At the 2010 general election on 6 May, Stewart was elected as the new MP for the safe seat[36] of Beckenham.[37][38]

In 2013, Stewart voted against same-sex marriage and called on the then Prime Minister David Cameron to drop the proposal.[39] Five years later in May 2018 he apologised unreservedly in the House of Commons chamber for voting against same-sex marriage, after he had seen "the joy" it had brought to the lives of same-sex couples. In 2019, he voted to extend same-sex marriage to couples in Northern Ireland.[40]

Stewart served on the House of Commons Defence Select Committee and in May 2014 he was one of seven unsuccessful candidates for the chairmanship of the committee.[41]

Stewart has been vocal in criticising cuts to the defence budget, suggesting in March 2015, that if the Joint Chiefs of Staff were to resign over the issue it would "make a very powerful message". When asked if he would resign as an MP himself, he said that he was considering it.[42]

In 2016, Stewart was criticised after it was revealed he had described Isabel Hardman, The Spectator's assistant editor, as "totty". He later apologised to the journalist, but went on to publicly defend himself against an environment that he described as overly 'politically correct'.[43][44] In November 2017, Stewart countered sexual harassment allegations saying "I'm not sleazy or drunk".[45]

Stewart's seat was a target seat for the Liberal Democrats at both the 2017 and 2019 general election, following his open support of Brexit.[46] At the snap 2017 general election, Stewart held his seat with an increased vote share of two per cent. But in 2019, his vote share fell by 5.4% as the Liberal Democrats doubled theirs, although still only achieving third place behind Labour.[47]

In the House of Commons Stewart sits on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee[48] and has previously sat on the Committees on Arms Export Controls and Defence Sub-Committee.[49]

Stewart employs his wife as a Senior Parliamentary Assistant.[50] He was listed in an article in The Daily Telegraph criticising the practice of MPs employing family members, on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Stewart's employment of his wife is lawful.[51]

During a 2018 interview with Russia Today that followed the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Stewart suggested that teachers in American high schools may have to be armed.[52]

In March 2020, Stewart was accused of fuelling xenophobia after he described COVID-19 as a "foul Chinese illness" in a Facebook post. Stewart said: "My grandfather died of Spanish flu in 1919 and I used the word Chinese Flu in respect of where the virus originated. As a constituent emailed me and thought I was being rude about the Chinese I deleted the word 'Chinese' because that was not my intention."[53]

He is a Sino-sceptic who co-chairs the British-Taiwanese all-party parliamentary group along with Lord Rogan.[54]

In July 2021, Stewart was one of five Conservative MPs found by the Commons Select Committee on Standards to have breached the code of conduct by writing to the Lord Chief Justice to try to influence a judge not to release character statements made by ordinary members of the public – former constituents of the former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke, who had previously been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault and sentenced to two years in prison.[55] Stewart reportedly wrote to the judge saying Elphicke's sentence should take into account his hard work as an MP, and described his crimes as "folly".[56] On 22 July 2021, Stewart made a personal statement in the House of Commons apologising.

Public disorder charges

In December 2022, Stewart was captured on video in an exchange with human rights activist Sayed Alwadaei outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy in London. Alwadaei challenged Stewart about a visit paid for by the Bahraini government, asking him, "Did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?" In response, Stewart said that Bahrain was "a great place", adding "Go back to Bahrain." Stewart later apologised for his remarks, but said he was "taunted" and had not taken money from Bahrain. Alwadaei submitted a letter of complaint to the Conservative Party, alleging that Stewart had brought the party into disrepute and victimised him because of his race or nationality.[57] The police subsequently opened an investigation into the incident.[58]

On 5 June 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it had authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Stewart with two offences under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, including racially aggravated abuse "and in the alternative, a non-aggravated section 5 offence under the same Act."[59] A person found guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale defined under section 17 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (£1,000).[60][61] Stewart pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 19 July 2023.[62] It is understood that he will keep the Conservative whip following authorisation of the charges.[63]

Personal life

Stewart lives in Beckenham in London. He has six children. After 20 years of marriage, Stewart left his wife for Claire Podbielski, a Red Cross worker sixteen years his junior.[64]

Honours

RibbonDescription[65]Notes
Distinguished Service Order (DSO)
General Service Medal
  • With "NORTHERN IRELAND" Clasp
United Nations Medal
Accumulated Campaign Service Medal
  • 36 Months Campaign Service

See also

References
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  5. Waller, Martin (20 July 2009). "Can Colonel Bob conquer books on business?". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
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