Alistair Burt

Early life

Alistair Burt was born in Bury, then in Lancashire its historic county, and was educated at the Bury Grammar School, where he was appointed Head Boy in 1973, and St John's College, Oxford where he was elected president of the Oxford Law Society in 1976 and graduated with a degree in jurisprudence law in 1977. He became an articled clerk with Slater Heelis & Co. of Manchester in 1978, becoming a solicitor with Watts Vallence & Vallence in 1980 where he remained until 1983.

Early parliamentary career

Burt was elected as a councillor on Haringey Borough Council in 1982 and left the council in 1984. He contested the new seat of Bury North at the 1983 general election at which he was elected as the Conservative MP with a majority of 2,792 votes. He represented the seat until 1997 and returned to parliament again in 2001.

In Parliament Alistair Burt became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for the Environment Kenneth Baker in 1985, he remained as PPS to Baker in his role as Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1986 and in his role as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1989 until 1990. After the 1992 general election Burt was promoted to the government of John Major and became the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security where he remained until 1995 when he was promoted further with the rank of Minister of State at the same department. He was one of many ministers who lost their seats at the 1997 general election when Bury North fell to Labour's David Chaytor by 7,866 votes. From 1997-2001 he worked at executive search firm Whitehead Mann GKR.

Opposition years

Alistair Burt re-entered parliament at the 2001 general election for the very safe Conservative seat of Bedfordshire North East which had been represented in parliament by the former Attorney General Nicholas Lyell who had retired. Burt was elected with a majority of 8,577, and has remained as an MP since. He was made an opposition spokesman on Education and Skills under William Hague in 2001, before he became the PPS to the Leader of the Opposition Iain Duncan Smith in 2002 and carried on as PPS to the new leader Michael Howard. After the 2005 general election he rejoined the front bench and was a spokesman on Local Government Affairs and Communities. However, in January 2008, Burt was promoted to Assistant Chief Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Internal Development.

Burt is a former officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel, a position which he resigned upon entering government as a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In December 2008, he led an all-Party group meeting with the Red Cross to campaign for visiting rights for the Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit. He is a member of the Political Council of the Henry Jackson Society. He is also joint founder and first Chairman of The Enterprise Forum, an organisation set up in 1997 to facilitate discussions on policy between the Business Community and the Conservative Party. He is a Vice-President of the Tory Reform Group.

Cameron-Clegg ministry

Burt was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for three years, afterwards promoted to a Minister of State from 1995 to 1997, at the Department of Social Security.

Burt was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on 14 May 2010. His roles there included overseeing British-Syria policy for three years that included the start of the Syrian Civil War, and leading on Israeli issues for the government at the United Nations. Burt was angered at the failure of MPs in August 2013 to support the British government's plan to participate in military strikes against the Syrian government, in the wake of a chemical-weapons attack at Ghouta. He stepped down on 7 October 2013. Burt had been delegated under William Hague specific responsibilities for advancing FCO policy on:

After standing down from the FCO, Burt was made a Privy Councillor on 16 October 2013, and in December that year, was appointed a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Critic of Syria policy

As a former minister, he was freed to argue that the parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria was a bad precedent, and it would be better if the government made decisions such as this in future by "executive action". In June 2014 Burt called the lack of intervention in Syria "a disaster".

Cameron Ministry

After the Conservative victory in the United Kingdom general election, 2015 on 11 May, Burt returned to Government as Minister of State for Care and Support in the Department of Health.

As a Conservative health minister, he blocked a new law to provide cheap and effective drugs for the NHS by championing medicines whose patents have expired. Burt spoke in Parliament for nearly half an hour to “filibuster” the proposed Off-Patent Drugs Bill, a plan that had cross-party support from backbenchers. He said “It is not always the case that something brought forward by a charity and advocated passionately by colleagues is always the answer. It's not disgraceful - it's the right answer.” The Bill was subsequently revised and placed into law with agreement from all sides on the issue

Post Minister Step Down

In July 2016 Alistair announced that he would be resigning from his Ministerial position, “Twenty-four years and one month ago, I answered my first question as a junior minister in oral questions and I’ve just completed my last oral questions,” Mr Burt said. It was made clear that his resignation was not related to Brexit.

Historically Alistair Burt had been very active in seeking justice for the victims of the Tainted Blood Scandal but had been publicly quiet on the issue in 2015/2016 due to his Ministerial position. In November 2016 following his departure he made a passionate speech to Parliament in order to layout events stating "In June 2015, I was re-invited by the then Prime Minister to join the Government in the Department of Health, at which point I went quiet on campaigning as far as the public were concerned. I know that some people misinterpreted that. My position in the Department of Health was not conditional on the fact that I had been involved with contaminated blood, and neither was my position in the Foreign Office or my decision to leave the Department of Health of my own accord earlier this year. However, the ministerial convention is clear: Ministers say only what the Government’s position is. We cannot have two colleagues firing away on the same issues, so I did indeed go quiet publicly for a period".

Funding and expenses

The North East Bedfordshire Constituency Association has received £34,911.93 in donations since 2005. Burt has received a variety of corporate donations from conservative groups, the largest of which was £32,071.93 from The Association of Conservative Clubs Ltd in 2005.

In 2009 Burt was found to have over-claimed for rent by £1000, but was not required to return the money as he was not claiming expenses for food.

Personal life

Burt married Eve Alexandra Twite in 1983 in Haringey. Eve works as the MP office manager for Alistair Burt. He is an active Christian. He enjoys athletics and football, and supports Bury F.C. He is a member of Biggleswade Athletics Club, and has run many London Marathons and Harrold Pit Runs.