Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British politician who served as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Grantham and Stamford from
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
to
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
. He was a member of the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
until 2019.
Before entering Parliament, Boles was a
Westminster City council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...
lor and the director of
Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange is a British conservatism in the United Kingdom, conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". ''The Washing ...
, a
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
based in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
. He was elected to the
Grantham and Stamford constituency in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
at the
2010 general election. He served as Minister of State for Skills from 2014 to 2016.
Boles resigned from his local Conservative Association on 16 March 2019 citing differences with his local party. On 1 April 2019, he resigned the
party whip
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...
, accusing the party of failing to compromise on
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
. He then sat as an
Independent Progressive Conservative until the dissolution of parliament on 5 November.
Early life
Boles was born on 2 November 1965, the son of Sir
Jack Boles
Sir John Dennis Boles (25 June 1925 – 1 July 2013), was a British Colonial Service officer in North Borneo, and later in England worked for the National Trust, serving as its Director-General from 1975 to 1983.
Early life
A son of Geoffrey Bo ...
, who was later Director-General of the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
from 1975 to 1983. He is the great-nephew of
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
Dennis Boles.
Boles was a scholar at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
before reading
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
, then winning a
Kennedy Scholarship
Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the schol ...
to study for a Master's in Public Policy at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
Career
In 1995, Boles founded a small
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...
supply business, Longwall Holdings Limited, of which he is the non-executive chairman, having served as its chief executive until 2000. In 1998, he was elected as a Conservative councillor for the
West End ward on
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...
. He was chairman of the council's housing committee from 1999 to 2001, before stepping down in 2002.
Boles was considered one of a group of young Conservatives aligned with
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
and
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...
described as the
Notting Hill set.
He founded the think tank
Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange is a British conservatism in the United Kingdom, conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". ''The Washing ...
in 2002 and served as its director until leaving the organisation in 2007.
Boles was the Conservative Party candidate for the
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
-held
marginal seat
A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...
of
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
for the
2005 general election. He received media attention during the election by being an openly
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
Conservative candidate for a winnable seat. However,
Celia Barlow
Celia Anne Barlow (born 28 September 1955) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove from 2005 to 2010. She also worked as home news editor at the BBC.
Early life
Barlow was born in Cardiff, Wales, an ...
retained the seat for Labour. He was a candidate in the Conservative primary for the
2008 London mayoral election
The 2008 London mayoral election for the office of Mayor of London, England, was held on 1 May 2008. Conservative Party (UK), Conservative candidate Boris Johnson defeated incumbent Labour Party (UK), Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone. It was the th ...
, but withdrew after being diagnosed with
Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...
.
Boles recovered from his illness, and in October 2007 was selected as the prospective Conservative candidate for
Grantham and Stamford, then occupied by
Quentin Davies
John Quentin Davies, Baron Davies of Stamford (born 29 May 1944) is a British Labour politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 1987 to 2010. He served as a junior defence minister in th ...
, who had switched allegiance from the Conservatives to Labour earlier in 2007.
In May 2008, Boles was appointed as the
Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
for the new Conservative
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
for three months. In the second half of 2008, he worked on preparing the Conservatives for government by meeting senior
civil servants
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
to discuss how to implement Conservative policies if they won the next general election.
Boles was elected as member for Grantham and Stamford in
May 2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...
with a majority of 14,826. He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Schools Minister,
Nick Gibb
Nicolas John Gibb (born 3 September 1960) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Schools since October 2022, having previously held the office from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2021. He has served at the Department for E ...
in 2010.
Boles was Minister for Planning between November 2012 and August 2014.
He introduced a "presumption for sustainable development" aimed at making new housing development easier, which required councils to create local plans identifying areas that were suitable for further building.
In a November 2013 speech, at a conference fringe meeting, he argued that despite their unpopularity the reforms were "making the world a slightly better place", but that he'd prefer to work in education than planning.
In August 2014, Boles was appointed Minister for Skills, which included responsibilities for education and construction.
In October 2016, Boles announced that a
cancerous tumour had been found in his head and he expected to undergo treatment soon.
The following February, he took a trip out of hospital after a third round of
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...
in order to vote for the government's bill on withdrawal from the European Union.
[ He announced in April 2017 he would be standing at the 2017 general election. The tumour was eradicated by chemotherapy.
]
2019 resignation
On 16 March 2019, Boles resigned from his local Conservative Association after disagreeing with them about his rejection of leaving the EU with no deal. The local association had been considering deselecting him as candidate at the next election, due to the disagreement.
On 1 April 2019, Boles resigned from the Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
following the announcement of the results of the second round of indicative votes on exiting the European Union. He had been a proponent with Oliver Letwin
Sir Oliver Letwin (born 19 May 1956) is a British politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for West Dorset from 1997 to 2019. Letwin was elected as a member of the Conservative Party, but sat as an independent after having the whip removed in Sep ...
of the "Common Market 2.0" proposal, which failed at 261 - 282 votes, and reportedly felt "furious", "upset" and "let down" by fellow MPs who had promised to vote in support of his proposal, and at party whips
A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
who had attempted to persuade MPs to abstain on the proposal despite declaring it to be a free vote
A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are allowed to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. In a parliamenta ...
. He stated in his resignation speech that:
: "I have given everything to an attempt to find a compromise that can take this country out of the European Union while maintaining our economic strength and political cohesion. I accept that I have failed. I have failed chiefly because my party refuses to compromise. I regret, therefore, that I can no longer sit for this party."
He subsequently described himself as sitting as an "Independent Progressive Conservative" until Parliament was dissolved on 6 November 2019.
Policy positions
In 2010, Boles argued that the Coalition Government was the true inheritor of Blairism
In British politics, Blairism is the political ideology of Tony Blair, the former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and those that support him, known as Blairites. It entered the '' New Penguin English Dictio ...
and called for former Labour Cabinet ministers - David Miliband
David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...
, James Purnell
James Mark Dakin Purnell (born 2 March 1970) is a British broadcasting executive and former Labour Party politician who served as Work and Pensions Secretary and Culture Secretary in the Brown Government from 2007 to 2009. In October 2016, he ...
and Andrew Adonis
Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, (born Andreas Adonis; 22 February 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State ...
- to join the Government. This echoed a similar call from his close friend, Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...
, for Purnell, Adonis and Hazel Blears
Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is a former British Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles, previously Salford, from 1997 to 2015.
One of 101 female Labour MPs elected at the 1997 gen ...
to serve a Conservative Government. Later that year, Boles also called for the Coalition to remain until after 2015 in the form of an electoral pact. Boles has called for the forming of a "national liberal" faction within the Conservative Party formed of social liberals with conservative fiscal views, and suggested some Conservative candidates might benefit from running for election under that name to win over voters who did not consider themselves conservatives.
In July 2012, Boles used a speech at the Resolution Foundation
The Resolution Foundation is an independent British think tank established in 2005. Its stated aim is to improve the standard of living of low- and middle-income families.
Appointments
In June 2015, the former Conservative MP David Willetts to ...
think tank to call for:
*An end to winter fuel payments, free prescriptions, free bus travel and free TV licences for better-off pensioners;
*A postponement of deciding on full implementation of Andrew Dilnot
Sir Andrew William Dilnot, (born 19 June 1960) is a Welsh economist and broadcaster. He was formerly the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002, and was Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford between 2002 and 2012. As o ...
's solution to the future funding of social care until the next comprehensive spending review;
*A cut of £10.5 billion from welfare bills by 2016–17 and devising a better solution to support parenting of young children than the Sure Start
Sure Start is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, applying primarily in England with slightly different versions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The initiative o ...
programme which he describes as "demonstrably ineffective".
As a minister Boles was reported to have been on the political council of the Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...
, a think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
which advocates an interventionist approach to foreign policy, in December 2016. In 2012, he was listed as a participant in that year's Bilderberg Group
The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defin ...
meeting.
Boles supported the Remain campaign in the European Union membership referendum in 2016. After the referendum vote to leave the EU, he favoured a Norway-style relationship between the UK and the EU after Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
, and strongly opposed a no-deal Brexit. Boles said in December 2018 "if at any point between now and 29 March 019
Nineteen or 19 may refer to:
* 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20
* one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019
Films
* ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film
* ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film
Music ...
the government were to announce that 'no deal' Brexit had become its policy, I would immediately resign the Conservative whip and vote in any way necessary to stop it from happening."
Boles supports Land Value Tax
A land value tax (LVT) is a levy on the value of land (economics), land without regard to buildings, personal property and other land improvement, improvements. It is also known as a location value tax, a point valuation tax, a site valuation ta ...
. While an MP Boles, who had suffered a life-threatening illness before supporting the campaign, in 2018 became the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life is a cross-party group of members of the British Parliament and Peers that supports better end-of-life options, including assisted dying. They believe that, subject to legal safeguar ...
, which believes that terminally ill patients should have the right to an assisted death.
After Parliament
Boles did not stand as a candidate in the 12 December 2019 election. He endorsed the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 election but then revealed that he had in fact voted for the Greens. During the 2022 local elections, he announced that he would be voted Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
and said that he had also done so in 1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
. Boles had previously stated that he flirted with joining the Labour Party under Blair but said he wanted to be on the liberal wing of a party instead of the hard-nosed, rightwing of a party. Boles had previously suggested figures such as David Miliband
David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...
and James Purnell
James Mark Dakin Purnell (born 2 March 1970) is a British broadcasting executive and former Labour Party politician who served as Work and Pensions Secretary and Culture Secretary in the Brown Government from 2007 to 2009. In October 2016, he ...
join the Coalition. In September 2022, Boles wrote an article in ''The Guardian'', criticising Liz Truss
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...
's government and saying that 'Labour is the only party that can lead us out of this mess'.
Personal life
Boles is gay, and entered a civil partnership
A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...
in May 2011. Boles claimed £930.60 in Parliamentary expenses for Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
lessons so that he could better communicate with his Israeli boyfriend Shay Meshulam. Following public criticism, Boles donated money equivalent to the amount spent on the lessons to three local charities in his constituency.
Boles's sister, Victoria Boles, married Dudley Fishburn
John Dudley Fishburn (born 8 June 1946) is a British businessman, journalist, and politician. He was Executive Editor of ''The Economist'' and Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom (MP) for Kensington.
Early life and family
Educated at ...
, a former Member of Parliament.
Bibliography
*
*
See also
* Norway-plus model
In British politics, the "Norway-plus model" was a proposal for a post-Brexit settlement, which the British government did not pursue. Proposed in November 2018 as an alternative to the Chequers plan, it would have consisted of membership of the ...
References
External links
*
''Ethos Journal'' Isabel Hardman profiles Nick Boles MP
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boles, Nicholas
1965 births
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Gay politicians
LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
LGBT politicians from England
Living people
Politics of Grantham
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Kennedy Scholarships
People educated at Winchester College
Georgist politicians
Conservative Party (UK) councillors
Councillors in the City of Westminster