David Burrowes

Early life

Burrowes was born in Cockfosters and was educated at Highgate School and the University of Exeter. Whilst at Exeter, in 1990, Burrowes and Tim Montgomerie founded the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Before entering parliament he worked for Enfield solicitors, Shepherd Harris and Co, specialising in criminal law and was an advocate in police stations and courts in Enfield, Haringey and Hertfordshire. He was an Enfield Borough Council councillor for 12 years.

Parliamentary career

Burrowes contested the safe Labour seat of Edmonton at the 2001 general election achieving a 1.0 swing away from sitting MP Andy Love who won by a majority of 9,772. He was elected MP for Enfield Southgate in May 2005, defeating Minister of State for Education and Skills Stephen Twigg with a majority of 1,747 votes and a swing of 8.7%. He made his maiden speech on 20 June 2005. A month after the 7 July 2005 London bombings, Burrowes joined a group of people claiming to represent a new generation of Tory MPs. In a letter to the Spectator, they agreed with moderate Muslims that Britain was decadent and blamed "woolly-minded" liberal thinking for society's sliding values. Success, they declared, required answering "the people's plea for certainty, order and decency", not propping up "failed ideas of the liberal elite".

Select Committees and Interest groups 2005–2010

Burrowes has been a member of several Select Committees including: Public Administration Select Committee 2005–10, Armed Forces Bill 2005–06, Joint Committee on the Draft Legal Services Bill 2006, Joint Committee on the Draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill 2007. Based on the questions he asks, his main political topics of interest are Justice, Health, Home Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, International Development, though he includes family policy, drugs and alcohol policy and voluntary sector, umbilical cord blood banking, treatment and research in his Parliament biography.

Burrowes was a member of a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) including: Democracy in Burma, British-Cyprus All-Party Parliamentary Group (Chair), Asthma, Child and Youth Crime Group (Vice-Chair), Childcare, Christians in Parliament, Complex Needs and Dual Diagnosis (Chair), Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders, Fatherhood, Holy See, Human Trafficking, Interest Rate Swap Mis-selling, Legal Aid, Poverty, Prison Health, Pro-Life Group, Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia, Stem Cell Transplantation (Vice-Chair), Sustainable Relationships (Secretary), Voice UK and Youth Affairs. He is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.

In 2005-6 he contributed to debates on Violent Crime, Fatherhood, Criminal Legal Aid, Council Tax Revaluation, and Equalities. In 2007-8 he contributed to debates on Chase Farm Hospital, Drugs and Alcohol Addiction, Cyprus, Criminal Justice, Prisons, Hospital Acquired Infections (C.diff), Embryo Research, Burma, Council Tax, Hit and Run fatalities and Fatherhood. In July 2007 he was appointed to the frontbench as Shadow Justice Minister.

Shadow Justice Minister

During the Conservative Party’s social justice policy review headed by Iain Duncan Smith, Burrowes chaired the committee looking into addiction. Their 111-page report which dealt with "The nature and extend of social breakdown and poverty today" and "The causes of poverty" was designed to provide policy for an incoming government to tackle "Britain's most acute social problems".

Post 2010 Election

He was re-elected in 2010 with a majority of 7626, a swing of 7.2%. He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Francis Maude MP, Minister to the Cabinet Office and Oliver Letwin, Minister responsible for Government Policy. In September 2010, Burrowes was reappointed as PPS to Letwin, providing support to Letwin’s policy role across government and in particular in relation to drugs and alcohol treatment reform and future policy development.

In September 2012, Burrowes was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He retained his advisory role with Oliver Letwin on the issue of drug and alcohol policy.

In 2013, he called for the Attorney General to review the sentence passed on former Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne which he regarded as too lenient.

He was a prominent opponent of the Government's proposals to introduce same-sex marriage into England and Wales, and helped establish the Coalition for Marriage against its adoption. He is reported as saying that it would risk leading to an "adulterer's charter", but his call for a referendum to be held on the issue was ignored.

At the general election in 2015 Burrowes was elected for a third term and retained the same share of the vote won in 2010. He is Co-Chair of the Complex Needs and Dual Diagnosis APPG, Protection of Cultural Heritage APPG, and Stem Cell Transplantation. David is also an officer of the following APPGs – Cyprus, Human Trafficking, Religious Education, Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia, Refugees and Ending Homelessness. He is Co-Chair of the Complex Needs and Dual Diagnosis APPG, Protection of Cultural Heritage APPG, and Stem Cell Transplantation. David is also an officer of the following APPGs – Cyprus, Human Trafficking, Religious Education, Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia, Refugees and Ending Homelessness. In 2015 Burrowes was elected to the Home Affairs Select Committee and re-elected as Executive Member of the Conservative MPs' backbench 1922 Committee and Chairman of its Justice Committee. In this Parliament David has spoken up on a number of key issues which have led to changes in Government policy and legislation. For example David led the call for more Syrian refugees to be accepted in the UK; he successfully led the cross party opposition to assisted suicide and the relaxation of Sunday Trading laws, he supported the blanket ban on the supply of so called 'legal highs'.

Burrowes supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum.

Constituency issues

Burrowes became a "major focal point of the high profile campaign to stop computer hacker Gary McKinnon," a constituent, being extradited to the United States. The Home Secretary decided to stop the extradition order which Burrowes called "a victory for common sense and compassion".

In February 2015 Burrowes was embarrassed to find himself canvassing for the United Kingdom general election, 2015 on doorsteps in the home street of neighbouring MP Andrew Love after he and his campaign team accidentally strayed into the wrong constituency.

Personal life

A keen cricketer and footballer, Burrowes married Janet Coekin in January 1996 in Havering. They have six children, twins Barnaby and Harriet, Dougal, Dorothy, Noah and Toby. He is a supporter of Arsenal F.C. Burrowes serves as an LEA Governor at Broomfield School and St Paul's CE Primary School in Enfield. He is also a trustee and active participant in his local church.