Lee Rotherham is on the Conservative Party's
Approved Candidate List
Lee Rotherham was born in Merseyside, grew up in Lincolnshire and has lived and worked in the West Midlands, Home Counties, London, and overseas. He is a hit author, historian, and analyst, who has also over the years worked for a national heritage organisation, in teaching, in a small publishing firm, as well as in agriculture.
In addition, he has worked in Whitehall in counternarcotics and in crisis management, and was secretary to a ministerial advisory group on extremism. He is on the national advisory board of a youth organisation. Recently he has been advising a Police and Crime Commissioner. He is a prominent campaigner on issues around good governance, the fight against fraud and waste - as well as being a leading expert on EU and post-Brexit issues such as fisheries reform, ECHR costs, and slashing red tape. An experienced campaigner and media performer, he has twice been a general election candidate; in St Helens South in 2001 in a blaze of publicity against Shaun Woodward (and his butler), and in 2005 in Rotherham against the then-Europe Minister Denis MacShane. He has also on three occasions stood for council in the People's Republic of Lambeth, with predictable results... Lee ran Opposition Research for the successful No to AV referendum campaign (where in a tv advert he met a certain Alan B'Stard - the epitome of how NOT to do politics!), and was Director of Special Projects at Vote Leave. Lee has been widely published - academically, by think tanks, and also through a series of tour guide books to yesteryear. This includes a history of the national debt, plus others on Roman, mediaeval, colonial, and apocalyptical history. In Land of the Superwoke, he explored with humour what the country would look like under a future Hard Left government. Ten Years On anticipated Brexit by a decade and was advertised in cinemas nationwide. His two Bumper Books of Government Waste (written with Matthew Elliott) were huge hits, and were key to putting public spending at the top of the media agenda even during a Labour Government. One won a prestigious Atlas Foundation award in Washington DC. He has two research degrees on Quebec, a subject that first got him recruited into politics by Eurosceptic MPs - whence his twitter handle, @DrBrexit. |
Lee has unparalleled insight into the workings of Westminster and beyond. He has advised and aided MPs, MEPs, a delegate to the Council of Europe, three Shadow Foreign Secretaries, ministers in government, and the Conservative Party's (Eurosceptic) delegate to the Convention on the Future of Europe. That means he has a massive head start as a prospective candidate on election. Which is just as well as there is much to be done.
Amongst other current activities he is Executive Director of Veterans for Britain (VfB), which was for example instrumental in saving the River Class patrol vessels which, as anticipated, turned out to be needed in protecting our fishing waters. He has long been a campaigner against corruption and malpractice - a drive for good governance that began in helping blow the lid on Labour's Donnygate scandal, led to a spell at the celebrated TaxPayers Alliance, and subsequently placed him at the forefront of campaigns against EU fraud and malpractice. He continues to support international Eurosceptics still engaged in that fight, including speaking in a mass rally in Paris. Lee has served in the Reserves for over 20 years - a character-building experience and source of enduring camaraderie which he strongly recommends to others. This has included three overseas operational deployments (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya/NATO HQ), as well as several extended attachments closer to home. Usefully, he is a linguist by background. A former Sergeant Major, he is now a commissioned officer working in support of heritage protection. |
“Lee Rotherham is a flinty patriot, a great campaigner and a true Conservative.”
Lord (Dan) Hannan of Kingsclere
“Lee is a thoughtful committed Conservative who would make an excellent MP.”
Rt Hon Sir John Hayes CBE, MP
“Lee has provided much intellectual underpinning for Conservative causes for many years. He is a huge asset to the party and would be an excellent MP.”
Rt Hon David Jones, MP
"Conservatives need to keep tabs on Whitehall and errant quangos. Lee's been successfully at the forefront of that necessary and difficult task for many years and would be a vital backbencher."
Rt Hon Dame Priti Patel, MP
"I worked with Lee on the referendum campaign against the Alternative Vote. He was an assiduous campaigner who got on well with colleagues from across party divides.”
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
“I’ve known Lee since the very earliest days of ConservativeHome. He’s an intelligent right-of-centre campaigner and one of the country’s leading experts on Brussels. He’d be a huge asset to the nation and to the Party, building on his prominent achievements in defending our country’s sovereignty to date.”
Tim Montgomerie
“Lee would be an outstanding candidate. He has prodigious campaigning, media and policy experience. His detailed work on the EU over many years was an essential part of the referendum victory. In Parliament he would be well-placed to harvest the fruits of Brexit and hack back remaining EU red tape.”
Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP
“Lee is a veteran campaigner, and a veteran full stop. Parliament needs his determination and insight.”
Col Richard Kemp, CBE
"Despite that fund of facts and his ability as a writer, it is his intelligent analysis of EU issues which has most impressed me. Lee is no yah-boo political name caller, but a serious, grown-up politician with the conviction and the ability to fight successfully for the British people."
Simon Richards (The Freedom Association)
“I’ve long worked with Lee; he’s proved a great campaigner fighting against bad policies, waste and fraud.”
Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris, MP
“Politics and Government are complicated. I’ve seen Dr Rotherham at work and know he can more than handle it.”
Rt Hon Lord Lilley
“Lee is an incredibly effective campaigner. His research skills tease out killer facts to win debates and his insight into opposing campaigns ensure they cannot get away with nonsense. He is also a team player, willing to get stuck into grassroots campaigning.”
Matthew Elliott
“Lee Rotherham is a well known right-leaning eurosceptic”
LeftFootForward.org
"a perennial right-wing activist"
OnLondon
"engagingly nerdy"
The Guardian
Lord (Dan) Hannan of Kingsclere
“Lee is a thoughtful committed Conservative who would make an excellent MP.”
Rt Hon Sir John Hayes CBE, MP
“Lee has provided much intellectual underpinning for Conservative causes for many years. He is a huge asset to the party and would be an excellent MP.”
Rt Hon David Jones, MP
"Conservatives need to keep tabs on Whitehall and errant quangos. Lee's been successfully at the forefront of that necessary and difficult task for many years and would be a vital backbencher."
Rt Hon Dame Priti Patel, MP
"I worked with Lee on the referendum campaign against the Alternative Vote. He was an assiduous campaigner who got on well with colleagues from across party divides.”
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
“I’ve known Lee since the very earliest days of ConservativeHome. He’s an intelligent right-of-centre campaigner and one of the country’s leading experts on Brussels. He’d be a huge asset to the nation and to the Party, building on his prominent achievements in defending our country’s sovereignty to date.”
Tim Montgomerie
“Lee would be an outstanding candidate. He has prodigious campaigning, media and policy experience. His detailed work on the EU over many years was an essential part of the referendum victory. In Parliament he would be well-placed to harvest the fruits of Brexit and hack back remaining EU red tape.”
Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP
“Lee is a veteran campaigner, and a veteran full stop. Parliament needs his determination and insight.”
Col Richard Kemp, CBE
"Despite that fund of facts and his ability as a writer, it is his intelligent analysis of EU issues which has most impressed me. Lee is no yah-boo political name caller, but a serious, grown-up politician with the conviction and the ability to fight successfully for the British people."
Simon Richards (The Freedom Association)
“I’ve long worked with Lee; he’s proved a great campaigner fighting against bad policies, waste and fraud.”
Rt Hon Chris Heaton-Harris, MP
“Politics and Government are complicated. I’ve seen Dr Rotherham at work and know he can more than handle it.”
Rt Hon Lord Lilley
“Lee is an incredibly effective campaigner. His research skills tease out killer facts to win debates and his insight into opposing campaigns ensure they cannot get away with nonsense. He is also a team player, willing to get stuck into grassroots campaigning.”
Matthew Elliott
“Lee Rotherham is a well known right-leaning eurosceptic”
LeftFootForward.org
"a perennial right-wing activist"
OnLondon
"engagingly nerdy"
The Guardian