Paul Scully

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For the Australian politician, see Paul Scully (Australian politician).
Paul Scully
MP
File:Official portrait of Paul Scully MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2020
Minister for London
Assumed office
13 February 2020
Prime Minister
Preceded by Chris Philp
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy
Assumed office
27 October 2022
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
Preceded by Damian Collins
Minister of State for Local Government and Building Safety
In office
8 July 2022 – 27 October 2022
Prime Minister
  • Boris Johnson
  • Liz Truss
Preceded by Kemi Badenoch
Succeeded by Lee Rowley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
In office
13 February 2020 – 8 July 2022
Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Preceded by Kelly Tolhurst
Succeeded by Jane Hunt
Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office
26 July 2019 – 13 February 2020
Leader Boris Johnson
Preceded by Helen Whately
Succeeded by Ranil Jayawardena
Member of Parliament
for Sutton and Cheam
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded by Paul Burstow
Majority 8,351 (16.5%)
Personal details
Born (1968-04-29) 29 April 1968 (age 56)
Rugby, Warwickshire, England[1]
Political party Conservative (since 1997)
Alma mater University of Reading
Website www.scully.org.uk

Paul Stuart Scully (born 29 April 1968) is a British politician serving as Minister for London since February 2020 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy since October 2022.[2] A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton and Cheam since 2015.

Scully served as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for the London region from 2017 to 2019, having been appointed by Theresa May to replace Stephen Hammond who had the Conservative whip withdrawn for rebelling against the government over the EU withdrawal bill.[3][4][5] After Boris Johnson was appointed Prime Minister in July 2019, Scully was promoted to Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets and Minister for London in the February 2020 reshuffle. In July 2022, he became Minister of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

In May 2023, Scully announced he would "pause" his ministerial role to seek the Conservative Party's nomination in the upcoming London mayoral election,[6] although he failed to even make the shortlist.[7]

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.[8] He moved to London after graduating and ran a number of small businesses.[9] 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.[10]

Political career

Local government

Scully unsuccessfully stood as a Conservative candidate in the Wallington South ward of the London Borough of Sutton Council elections in 2002, but was subsequently elected in the Carshalton Central ward in 2006.[11] He was the Leader of the Opposition on Sutton Council for three of his four years as a councillor.[12] Scully lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats at the following local election in 2010.[13]

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.[14]

Member of Parliament

Scully was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the marginal Sutton and Cheam seat at the 2015 general election. The constituency is part of the borough in which he had been a councillor. Scully defeated the Liberal Democrat incumbent, Paul Burstow, who had represented the seat since 1997, and was elected as its Member of Parliament (MP).[4] Scully was re-elected at the 2017 general election.[5]

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.[15] 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."[16]

He visited Myanmar for the first time in February 2016.[17] 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.[18]

He campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 EU referendum,[19][20] and was a supporter of the campaign group Leave Means Leave.[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 said that he was still committed to retaining facilities at the St Helier Hospital, where he had previously volunteered.[24]

File:UK Trade Envoy meets His Majesty The Sultan of Brunei.jpg
Scully as Trade Envoy meets the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah while on a trade visit to Brunei (November 2018)

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.[25] He helped manage the Conservative Party's campaign in the 2018 London local elections, in which the party registered its lowest-ever number of seats in the capital, but made a number of gains on Sutton Council.[26]

Scully was re-elected in Sutton and Cheam at the 2019 general election, albeit on a slightly reduced vote share.[27]

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

In July 2021, in response to a question about vaccine passports, Scully described himself as a libertarian conservative.[28]

On 22 October 2021, Scully talked out a bill which would outlaw the practice of sacking employees and hiring them back on worse terms and conditions, which resulted in the bill failing. Scully said that he did not disagree with the intent of the bill, but did not think it was the best means to achieve it. He said: "The unambiguous message is that bully-boy tactics of fire-and-rehire, for use as a negotiating tactic, is absolutely inappropriate."[29]

On 7 July 2022, he was appointed a Minister at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as part of the caretaker government by outgoing Prime Minister Johnson, succeeding Kemi Badenoch.[30] Scully remained in this role and as Minister for London in the Truss ministry.[31] In October 2022, under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Scully was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy.[2] He also remained in his post as Minister for London.[32]

On 11 June 2023, Scully failed to make the shortlist for the 2024 London mayoral election.[33]

Personal life

Scully is divorced and has two grown-up children.[34][better source needed]

References

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External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Sutton and Cheam
2015–present		 Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party
2019–2020		 Succeeded by
Ranil Jayawardena
Political offices
Preceded by Minister for London
2020–present		 Incumbent
Preceded by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
2020–2022		 Succeeded by
Jane Hunt
Preceded by Minister of State for Local Government and Building Safety
2022–present		 Incumbent

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  1. ↑ MyParliament.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Conservative Paul Scully elected to Sutton and Cheam after defeating Lib Dem Paul Burstow" (Sutton Guardian, 8 May 2015). Archived copy.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sutton & Cheam Parliamentary constituency (BBC News).
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ "SCULLY, Paul Stuart", Who's Who 2016, A & C Black.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ HC Deb, 22 January 2018 vol 635 c1WH (Hansard).
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ "Sutton council website" (London Borough of Sutton, 21 January 2018)
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ "British MP-Elect ‘Proud’ of Burma Heritage" (The Irrawaddy, 13 May 2015). Archived copy.
  16. ↑ HC Deb, 22 October 2015 vol 600 c1263 (Hansard).
  17. ↑ "British MP traces family footsteps in first-ever Myanmar visit" (Coconuts Yangon, 15 February 2016). Archived copy.
  18. ↑ "The refugees trapped in no man’s land" (The Times, 21 September 2017).
  19. ↑ "EU referendum: Six 2015 Conservative MPs back leaving EU" (BBC News, 4 January 2016). Archived copy.
  20. ↑ "Paul Scully: I'll be voting to leave the undemocratic, bureaucratic EU" (YouTube, 29 April 2016).
  21. ↑ Leave Means Leave: Who We Are. Archived copy.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ "Scully replaces Hammond as Party Vice-Chair for London" (ConservativeHome), 16 December 2017).
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  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. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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