Laurence Robertson

Early life

Robertson was born in Bolton, Lancashire. His father was a miner, a postman, a delivery man then a milkman. His mother was an office worker in Manchester. He was educated at St James's C.E. Secondary Modern School and Farnworth Grammar School, both located in Farnworth, and afterwards at Bolton Institute of Higher Education (now the University of Bolton), gaining a diploma in Management Services. His working life has also included him working as a charity fundraiser (where he claims to have raised over £1 million), public relations consultant, company director, factory owner from 1987 to 1988, industrial management consultant from 1983 to 1989, and work study engineer from 1977 to 1983.

Early political career

Robertson was an unsuccessful candidate when he stood for Bolton Council in the Derby ward in 1983 and in the Burnden ward in 1986. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Parliament in the Makerfield constituency at the 1987 general election and again in the Ashfield constituency at the 1992 general election.

From 1988 to 1991, Robertson was Chairman of Governors of a primary school, a visitor for Victim Support Scheme, and the area chairman for the Campaign for Law and Order.

Parliamentary career

Following his 1997 election to the House of Commons, Robertson courted controversy in May 2001 by ignoring James Cran's advice not to publicly express support for John Townend. Robertson endorsed Townend's controversial remarks about race on BBC's Newsnight saying that Townend's remarks were "basically true" and "having too many people in different multi-racial groups makes society very difficult to manage, especially in certain parts of the country. It is not that easy to manage that kind of society." Robertson was forced to apologise after being given an ultimatum to either apologise, retract his remarks and promise not to repeat them or to be stripped of the Conservative party whip. Robertson was reported to have told colleagues that he received a lot of support and was even told by the Tewkesbury constituency chairman that he should not have backed down.

In September 2001, he was appointed an Opposition Whip. In June 2003, was made Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry. In November 2003, he was appointed a Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs. From May 2005, he served as the Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland. He was not given a ministerial position in the 2010 Parliament, but served as chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, and was re-elected unopposed for the same position in June 2015.

In May 2005, he advanced a private member's bill to outlaw abortion altogether, making it an imprisonable offence except where the mother's life was at risk or where conception was due to rape.

Following the 2007 floods in Tewkesbury, Robertson spoke out against building on flood plains.

In December 2014, Robertson along with six other male Conservative Party MPs voted against the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill which would require all companies with more than 250 employees to declare the gap in pay between the average male and average female salaries.

In September 2011, details published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) revealed that Robertson was spending up to £35,000 on his partner Anne Marie "Annie" Adams as his office manager and up to £30,000 on his estranged wife Susan Robertson as his senior secretary (at a combined cost to the taxpayer of £65,000). Under rules introduced by IPSA in 2010, Robertson would not be allowed to employ both women because MPs are limited to one 'connected' person or family member on their staff. However, because the arrangement was in place before the rule change it is allowed to continue. From 2001 to 2011, Robertson has claimed more than £1 million in MP's expenses, and has criticised plans to overhaul the system of claims for MPs.

In March 2016, Robertson was accused of "cash for access" after it was emerged that he sponsored a parliamentary pass for a lobbyist, Jennifer Bryant-Pearson, in 2014 whose company paid him £7,500 for consultancy advice in 2009 and 2010. Robertson is paid between £9,000 and £10,000 a year by the environmental services company Veolia, which is among Bryant-Pearson's major clients. Robertson has been employed by Veolia since 2013.

In July 2017, Andrew Murrison succeeded Robertson as Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

Robertson is a Eurosceptic and active in the EU pressure group Better Off Out. He is a member of the right-wing The Freedom Association, an organisation that declares to be "against equal opportunities policies". He opposes devolution and the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

Personal life

Robertson is a practising Christian. In May 1989, Robertson married Susan Lees at All Saints Church in Farnworth. In 2002, he had an affair with Claire Parker, his constituency secretary who was married. In 2005, he divorced Susan Lees and soon cohabited with Annie Adams, a riding instructor who at the time was engaged to another man. On 7 February 2015, he married Annie Adams.