Paul Scully
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Paul Stuart Scully (born 29 April 1968) is a British politician serving as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy) is a junior position in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the British government. It was most recently held by Damian Collins Member of Pa ...
. 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 ...
, he has served as the
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 o ...
(MP) for Sutton and Cheam since 2015. Scully served as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for the
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
region from 2017 to 2019, having been appointed by
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...
to replace
Stephen Hammond Stephen William Hammond (born 4 February 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wimbledon since 2005. On 4 September 2012, Hammond was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of St ...
who had the Conservative whip withdrawn for rebelling against the government over the EU withdrawal bill."Conservative Paul Scully elected to Sutton and Cheam after defeating Lib Dem Paul Burstow"
(''
Sutton Guardian The ''Sutton & Croydon Guardian'', also known as ''Your Local Guardian'', is a weekly free local newspaper published by Newsquest that covers the South London boroughs of Sutton and Croydon as well as surrounding areas. The newspaper is publishe ...
'', 8 May 2015)
Archived copy
Sutton & Cheam Parliamentary constituency
(
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
).
After
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 ...
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 The Minister for London is a United Kingdom Government ministerial post in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The officeholder is responsible for policy relating to London including informing Members of Parliament in the ...
in the February 2020 reshuffle. In July 2022, he became Minister of State at the
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government i ...
.


Early life

Scully was born in
Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...
,
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
on 29 April 1968. His father's family was originally from
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. He was privately educated at Bedford School in Bedfordshire and the
University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
. He moved to London after graduating and ran a number of small businesses. Scully joined 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 ...
after the 1997 general election. He had previously voted for the
Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership of the European Union ...
, a Eurosceptic, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997.


Political career


Local government

Scully unsuccessfully stood as a Conservative candidate in the Wallington South ward of the
London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croy ...
Council elections in 2002, but was subsequently elected in the Carshalton Central ward in 2006. He was the Leader of the Opposition on Sutton Council for three of his four years as a councillor. Scully lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats at the following local election in 2010. In addition to his work as a local councillor, Scully worked as a parliamentary aide for Conservative MPs
Andrew Pelling Andrew John Pelling (born 20 August 1959) is a British politician. First elected as a Conservative he was an independent Member of Parliament for Croydon Central and on 30 March 2010 announced his intention to contest the seat as an Independen ...
,
Shailesh Vara Shailesh Lakhman Vara (born 4 September 1960) is a Ugandan-British politician, who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) ...
and
Alok Sharma Alok Sharma (born 7 September 1967) is a British politician who served as the President for COP26 from 2021-2022. Resigning his previous position as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in order to lead COP26, he re ...
, and set up a public relations company called Nudge Factory Ltd in 2011.


Member of Parliament

Scully was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the
marginal Marginal may refer to: * ''Marginal'' (album), the third album of the Belgian rock band Dead Man Ray, released in 2001 * ''Marginal'' (manga) * '' El Marginal'', Argentine TV series * Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in polit ...
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 Paul Kenneth Burstow (born 13 May 1962) is a British former politician who served as the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Sutton and Cheam for 18 years, from 1997 to 2015, when he was defeated by Paul Scully. He was appointed Minis ...
, who had represented the seat since
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 ...
, and was elected as its
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 o ...
(MP). Scully was re-elected at the 2017 general election. In September 2017, he was appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to
Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...
,
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
and Burma and was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Baroness Evans Natalie Jessica Evans, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, (born 29 November 1975), is a British politician and member of the House of Lords. A member of the Conservative Party, she was made a life peer in 2014 and from 2016 to 2022 was Leader of ...
, the Leader of the House of Lords between November 2017 and January 2018. He is "very proud" of his Burmese heritage. 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." He visited
Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
for the first time in February 2016. He has been active in human rights issues in Burma, especially the
Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...
refugee situation and is the Co-Chair of the
All-Party Parliamentary Group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...
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. He campaigned for a Leave vote in the
2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
, and was a supporter of the campaign group
Leave Means Leave Leave Means Leave was a pro-Brexit, Eurosceptic political pressure group organisation that campaigned and lobbied for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union following the 'Leave' result of the EU referendum on 23 June 2016. The campaig ...
. 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. 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. 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 St Helier Hospital (full title: ''St Helier Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children'') in the London Borough of Sutton is run by St George's, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group along with Epsom Hospital. It is lo ...
. Scully said that he was still committed to retaining facilities at the St Helier Hospital, where he had previously volunteered. On 15 December 2017, Scully was confirmed as the Conservative Party's new Vice Chairman for London, following the sacking of
Stephen Hammond Stephen William Hammond (born 4 February 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wimbledon since 2005. On 4 September 2012, Hammond was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of St ...
two days earlier for his failure to vote with the Government on a key vote relating to the United Kingdom departing the European Union. He helped manage the Conservative Party's campaign in the
2018 London local elections The 2018 London local elections took place in London on 3 May 2018 as part of wider local elections in England. All London borough councillor seats were up for election. Elections to the Corporation of London were held in 2017. Mayoral conte ...
, in which the party registered their lowest ever number of seats in the capital, but made a number of gains on Sutton Council. Scully was re-elected in Sutton and Cheam at the 2019 general election, albeit on a slightly reduced vote share. 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 The Minister for London is a United Kingdom Government ministerial post in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The officeholder is responsible for policy relating to London including informing Members of Parliament in the ...
, succeeding
Chris Philp Christopher Ian Brian Mynott Philp (born 6 July 1976) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire since October 2022. He served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General in October 2022. A me ...
. In July 2021, in response to a question about vaccine passports, Scully described himself as a
libertarian conservative Libertarian conservatism, also referred to as conservative libertarianism and conservatarianism, is a Political philosophy, political and social philosophy that combines Conservatism in the United States, conservatism and Libertarianism in the ...
. On 22 October 2021, Scully
talked out A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking 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." 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 Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch ( ; née Adegoke, 2 January 1980) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for International Trade, President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. She previously served i ...
. Scully remained in this role and as Minister for London in the
Truss Ministry Liz Truss was invited by Queen Elizabeth II—two days before the monarch's death—to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister of the United Kingdom on 6 September 2022. Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party the previous day a ...
. In October 2022, under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Scully was appointed as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy) is a junior position in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in the British government. It was most recently held by Damian Collins Member of Pa ...
.


Personal life

Scully is divorced and has two grown-up children.


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Paul 1968 births Alumni of the University of Reading British people of Burmese descent British politicians of Burmese descent Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English people of Burmese descent Living people People educated at Bedford School UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present