Conor Burns

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Conor Burns
MP
Member of Parliament
for Bournemouth West
Assumed office
6 May 2010
Preceded by John Butterfill
Majority 12,410 (29.7%)
Personal details
Born (1972-09-24) 24 September 1972 (age 51)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Residence Westbourne, Dorset, England, UK
Alma mater University of Southampton
Religion Roman Catholic
Website www.conorburns.com
parliament..conor-burns

Conor Burns[1] (born 24 September 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bournemouth West at the 2010 general election. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2012, before resigning from the Government due to his opposition to the Lords Reform Bill. Under the government of Boris Johnson he was made Trade Minister but was forced to resign when it emerged that he had written a letter to a member of the public in which he used his position as an MP to intimidate them, making 'veiled threats'. [2] In 2022 he was given the same post by new PM Liz Truss, but within weeks was dismissed again because of a report of "serious misconduct". He was also suspended from the Conservative Party. [3]

Personal life

Burns was born in Belfast before moving with his family to Hertfordshire in 1980.[4] He was educated at St Columba's College, St Albans and read Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton. It is said that his nickname "Third Degree Burns" was given because he attained only a third class degree, the lowest classification.[5] [4] He is a practising Catholic, but has said that he feels unable to take communion since Bishop Philip Egan, of the diocese in which Burns resides, stated that those politicians who voted for same-sex marriage, even with the caveats upon which Burns had insisted (i.e. "guarantees that ... churches would not ultimately be forced under human rights legislation to conduct such ceremonies”), should refrain from taking the sacrament.[6][7]

At Southampton he was chairman of the University's Conservative Association, 1992–93 and Chairman of Wessex Area Conservatives, 1993–94.[8] In 1994 Burns stood unsuccessfully in the Southampton Council elections. During the election campaign, Burns was criticised for referring to hecklers as "spastics" and calling a woman a "hunchback". He subsequently faced a students union disciplinary hearing as the vice-president of the Southampton Conservative Association.[9] He held a number of jobs in the communications and finance sectors,[4] most recently as an associate director of the public affairs company PLMR.[10] Prior to that, he was Director of the Policy Research Centre for Business Ltd.; Company Secretary for De Havilland Global Knowledge Distribution plc[11] and Manager for Zurich Advice Network.[12]

Political career

Burns was an elected councillor on Southampton City Council for three years from 1999, serving as the Conservative Group leader from 2001. Burns stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Eastleigh in the 2001 general election, finishing second with 34.3% of the vote. Burns was an unsuccessful candidate at the Hedge End Town Council elections, before coming second in the 2005 general election, again finishing second at Eastleigh with 37.5% of the vote, 568 votes behind Chris Huhne.[13] Burns was a member of the A-List of candidates and was selected in September 2008.[14]

Burns was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West in the 2010 general election with a majority of 5,583.[15]

He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Hugo Swire, the Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 2010, before which he briefly sat on the Education select committee. By 2012, he was promoted to be PPS to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson. However, he resigned on 10 July 2012 to vote against the Coalition's Lords Reform Bill, of which he had been a consistent critic.[16] He became a close acquaintance to Lady Thatcher in the later years of her life and spoke in the House of Commons debate on 10 April 2013 following her death.[17]

Political interests

Writing in 2008, Burns called for the international community to prepare a contingency plan for the governance of Zimbabwe after the eventual departure from office of Robert Mugabe.[18] He was outspoken in calling on former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to grant asylum to young gay Iranian student Mehdi Kazemi.[19][20]

A strong Eurosceptic, Burns has been critical of the electoral system used to elect Members of the European Parliament[21] and the impact of UK Independence Party candidates[22] in denying victory to Conservative candidates. A friend of Captain James Philippson who died in Afghanistan,[23] Burns has been critical of the perceived failure of the Ministry of Defence to provide troops with appropriate equipment, stating that many troops "would be alive today had they had the most basic of equipment".[24]

Although homosexual, Burns stated he needed "cast iron guarantees" that religious organisations will not be forced into conducting same sex marriages[25] before he voted for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.[26]

In 2014 he referred the charity Oxfam to the Charity Commission stating that a tweet from the charity was "overtly political".[27] He later criticised a letter[28] from Church of England bishops urging Christians[clarification needed] to engage with the 2015 election as "naive" and "factually wrong".[29][30]

Scandals and Resignation

In May 2020, Burns was forced to resign after an investigation by the Commons standards committee found that he had misused his position as an MP in multiple ways. The committee found that Burns had made a series of veiled threats while attempting to intervene in his father’s dispute over a loan. He had threatened to raise the issue in the House of Commons and cause embarrassment for the creditor. The committee recommended a suspension from parliament over multiple breaches of the MPs’ code before No 10 announced his resignation. A Downing Street spokesman said Burns had resigned after the committee’s report. Kathryn Stone, the commissioner for standards, said his behaviour “gives fuel to the belief that members are able and willing to use the privileges accorded them by their membership of the house to benefit their own personal interests”.[31]

In October 2022, Burns was alleged to have indecently handled another man in a bar during the Conservative Party Conference. He was dismissed from his post as Trade Minister by PM Elizabeth Truss and suspended from the Conservative Party. [32]

References

  1. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 59418. p. 8741. 13 May 2010.
  2. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-politics-52531078
  3. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-politics-63177669
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ https://twitter.com/market1788/status/1578509998568898560
  6. ↑ Gay marriage MP told he has excommunicated himself for voting for same-sex weddings, telegraph.co.uk; accessed 19 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Bishop Egan under fire over plans to deny communion to dissenting MPs, the tablet.co.uk; accessed 19 September 2015.
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ PR Week 11 May 2010 "Many lobbyists win seats but some see majority decreased" by David Singleton
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Profile, westbourne.info; accessed 18 May 2015.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Profile, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 8 May 2015.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour "Margaret Thatcher debate reopens raw wounds among Tory veterans", The Guardian, 10 April 2013.
  18. ↑ Burns on post-Mugabe Zimbabwe, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015
  19. ↑ Burns on Mehdi Kazemi asylum, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015.
  20. ↑ Burns on Mehdi Kazemi, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015.
  21. ↑ Burns critical of electoral system used to elect Members of the European Parliament, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015.
  22. ↑ Burns on UKIP, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Burns on MoD failures, conservativehome.blogs.com; accessed 18 May 2015.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Burns @ Twitter
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Church of England on 2015 general elections, churchofengland.org; accessed 18 May 2015.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/04/uk-trade-minister-conor-burns-resigns-over-loan-threats
  32. ↑ https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23031761.bournemouth-west-mp-conor-burns-whip-suspended/

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West
2010–present		 Incumbent
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