Bob Seely is the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, having first been elected to Parliament in 2017. He was reelected in the 2019 General Election with a majority of 23,737 over the Labour Party.
The Isle of Wight has long been Britain’s most populous Parliamentary constituency, with the island considered too small to hold two constituencies and too large to contain one. The constituency therefore covers the whole of the Isle of Wight off the coast off Hampshire. It is home to the famous Needles rocks, the towns of Sandown, Newport, Ryde, Yarmouth, and Cowes (famous for its sailing regatta).
A quarter of the population are over retirement age, and the Isle of Wight has its own distinct identity. Some 61.9% of the population supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum. Previously held by the Liberal Democrats between 1997 and 2001, the seat has become a safer Conservative proposition in recent years with the party winning 56% of the vote in 2019. Indeed, in 2019 the Lib Dems stood down in favour of the Green Party here, but the Greens only managed to come to third with 15% of the vote.
Born in 1966, Bob Seeley was educated at Harrow School, and Kings College London. He formerly worked as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe for the Times Newspaper, and then for the Washington Post, and Associated Press in London. He later worked for MTV Networks International.
From 2008 onwards, Bob Seeley served in the UK Armed Forces. He was mobilised or placed on Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) for nearly a decade until his selection as a parliamentary candidate in the 2017 election. He served extensively in the field in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was awarded a Joint Commanders Commendation in 2009, and a Military MBE in the 2016 Operational Awards and Honours List.
He remains a member of the Army Reserve.
Seeley moved to the Isle of Wight in 2011. His family have long standing connections to the island and his great great uncle was the MP for this constituency in the early part of the Twentieth Century.
He supported Michael Gove in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.
Bob Seely is Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; Hong Kong; Mexico; Russia; Dark Skies; Events; Marine Energy. Unsurprisingly for an Isle of Wight MP, he is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on UK Islands.
Email: bob.seely.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.bobseely.org.uk
Twitter – @IoWBobSeely
