Paul Scully

Paul Stuart Scully (born 29 April 1968) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton and Cheam since 2015. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as its vice chairman for the London region from 2017 to 2019, having replaced Stephen Hammond who had the Conservative whip withdrawn for rebelling against the government over the EU withdrawal bill.[2][3][4]

For the Australian politician, see Paul Scully (Australian politician).

Paul Scully

MP
Scully in 2020
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
Assumed office
13 February 2020
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byKelly Tolhurst
Minister for London
Assumed office
13 February 2020
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byChris Philp
Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office
26 July 2019 – 13 February 2020
LeaderBoris Johnson
Preceded byHelen Whately
Succeeded byRanil Jayawardena
Member of Parliament
for Sutton and Cheam
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded byPaul Burstow
Majority8,351 (16.5%)
Personal details
Born (1968-04-29) 29 April 1968
Rugby, England[1]
Political partyConservative (since 1997)
Alma materUniversity of Reading
Websitewww.scully.org.uk

Early life

Scully was born in Rugby, Warwickshire on 29 April 1968. His father's family was originally from Burma. He was privately educated at Bedford School in Bedfordshire and the University of Reading.[5] He moved to London after graduating and ran a number of small businesses.[6] Scully joined the Conservative Party after the 1997 general election. He had previously voted for the Referendum Party, a Eurosceptic, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997.[7]

Political career

Scully unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Wallington South ward of the London Borough of Sutton in 2002, but was subsequently elected in the Carshalton Central ward in 2006.[8] He was the Leader of the Opposition on Sutton Council for three of his four years as a councillor.[9] However, he lost his seat to the Liberal Democrat candidate at the following local election in 2010.[10]

In addition to his work as a local councillor, Scully worked as a parliamentary aide for Conservative MPs Andrew Pelling, Shailesh Vara and Alok Sharma, and set up a public relations company called Nudge Factory Ltd in 2011.[11]

He was selected as the Conservative Party candidate and subsequently elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton and Cheam in 2015,[12] and was re-elected in the 2017 general election.[13]

In September 2017, he was appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Brunei, Thailand and Burma and was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Baroness Evans, the Leader of the House of Lords between November 2017 and January 2018. He is "very proud" of his Burmese heritage.[14] In a parliamentary debate on 22 October 2015, he stated, "I am, I believe, the first Member of the British Parliament to be of Burmese heritage."[15]

He visited Myanmar for the first time in February 2016.[16] He has been active in human rights issues in Burma, especially the Rohingya refugee situation and is the Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Burma. He has written about his experience of being one of the first British MPs to visit the Kutupalong refugee camp during the 2017 mass movement.[17]

He campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 EU referendum,[18][19] and was a supporter of the campaign group Leave Means Leave.[20]

In Parliament, he is a member of the International Development Committee and the chair of its sub-committee overseeing the work of Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). He is also a member of the Petitions Committee on whose behalf he has led a number of debates.[21]

In May 2016, it was reported that Scully was one of a number of Conservative MPs being investigated by police in the United Kingdom general election, 2015 party spending investigation, for allegedly spending more than the legal limit on constituency election campaign expenses.[22] In May 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service said that while there was evidence of inaccurate spending returns, it did not "meet the test" for further action.[23]

In June 2017, comments made by Scully at an election hustings event and on a regional BBC politics programme relating to building a new hospital in Sutton were criticised by health campaigners as representing an acceptance of closing some existing local medical facilities, such as the St Helier Hospital. Scully argued that he still remained committed to retaining facilities at the St Helier Hospital, where he had previously volunteered.[24]

In October 2017, Scully was reported to be one of four serving MPs who had business interest in lobbying companies, despite recent attempts to limit on the industry's access to Parliament. After being elected as an MP, Scully remained a director of the company Nudge Factory Ltd and owned a 40% stake in it. An article alleged that the company's clients included property firms developing land in and around his South London constituency. The article referred to a Parliamentary Question that Scully had tabled about the time it takes to bring derelict land back into use, with his supplementary question covering the matter of land owned by the NHS and targeted by Sutton council on which to build a biotech campus.[25] Scully's business partner, Ahzaz Chowdhury, denied the allegations, responding that Scully stopped taking a salary from the company before being elected and that he had never asked any parliamentary questions prompted by the company or its clients.[26]

On 15 December 2017, Scully was confirmed as the Conservative Party's new Vice Chairman for London, following the sacking of Stephen Hammond two days earlier for his failure to vote with the Government on a key vote relating to the United Kingdom departing the European Union.[27] He helped manage the Conservative Party's campaign in the 2018 London local elections, where the party registered their lowest ever number of seats in the capital, but made a number of gains on the London Borough of Sutton Council.[28]

In February 2020, Scully joined the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, succeeding Kelly Tolhurst. He was also appointed to the position of Minister for London, succeeding Chris Philp.

Personal life

Scully is divorced and has two grown-up children.

Scully's ex-wife Emma is employed by Nudge Factory Ltd as an Office Manager and replaced her then husband as 'a person with significant control' on 1 April 2018.[29][30]

References
  1. MyParliament.
  2. "Vice Chairman for London, in comes Scully!". Conservative Home.
  3. "Conservative Paul Scully elected to Sutton and Cheam after defeating Lib Dem Paul Burstow" (Sutton Guardian, 8 May 2015). Archived copy.
  4. Sutton & Cheam Parliamentary constituency (BBC News).
  5. "SCULLY, Paul Stuart", Who's Who 2016, A & C Black.
  6. "About Paul". Personal website. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  7. HC Deb, 22 January 2018 vol 635 c1WH (Hansard).
  8. "Sutton Council Election Results 1964-2010" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  9. "Sutton council website" (London Borough of Sutton, 21 January 2018)
  10. "Sutton Council Election Results 1964-2010" (PDF). Plymouth University. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  11. "About Paul". Party website. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  12. "Conservative Paul Scully elected to Sutton and Cheam after defeating Lib Dem Paul Burstow" (Sutton Guardian, 8 May 2015). Archived copy.
  13. Sutton & Cheam Parliamentary constituency (BBC News).
  14. "British MP-Elect ‘Proud’ of Burma Heritage" (The Irrawaddy, 13 May 2015). Archived copy.
  15. HC Deb, 22 October 2015 vol 600 c1263 (Hansard).
  16. "British MP traces family footsteps in first-ever Myanmar visit" (Coconuts Yangon, 15 February 2016). Archived copy.
  17. "The refugees trapped in no man’s land" (The Times, 21 September 2017).
  18. "EU referendum: Six 2015 Conservative MPs back leaving EU" (BBC News, 4 January 2016). Archived copy.
  19. "Paul Scully: I'll be voting to leave the undemocratic, bureaucratic EU" (YouTube, 29 April 2016).
  20. Leave Means Leave: Who We Are. Archived copy.
  21. "Paul Scully MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  22. "Election Expenses Exposed". Channel 4 News. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  23. "Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Scully will not be prosecuted over Conservative's undeclared election spending". Sutton Guardian. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  24. "Video: Conservative candidate for Sutton and Cheam, Paul Scully's 'third hospital' plans stoke campaigners' fears of Epsom and St Helier closures". Epsom Guardian. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  25. "Topical Questions - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  26. "Tory MP's business partner lashes out over lobbying story". Public Affairs News. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  27. "Scully replaces Hammond as Party Vice-Chair for London" (ConservativeHome, 16 December 2017).
  28. "By-election results 2018". Local Government Association. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  29. "Register of Members Interests 2016-17". Parliament. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  30. "Nudge Factory Ltd". Companies House. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Paul Burstow		 Member of Parliament
for Sutton and Cheam
2015–present		 Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Helen Whately		 Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party
2019–2020		 Succeeded by
Ranil Jayawardena
Political offices
Preceded by
Chris Philp		 Minister for London
2020–present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Kelly Tolhurst		 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
2020–present
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