David Burrowes - Parliamentary Career

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 (UK Parliament constituency) 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".
Burrowes initially supported Liam Fox in the 2005 Conservative leadership election before endorsing David Cameron. However in May 2006, when the Right wing Cornerstone Group called on the party to choose locals and ditch the 'A-list' candidates, their message was accompanied by a "barely-disguised warning" to Cameron from Burrowes not to desert "sound Tory values." In particular, he criticised selection of minor celebrities, such as Louise Bagshawe and Adam Rickitt, over local candidates. Burrowes attributed the "biggest swing to the Tories" -his 2005 victory at Enfield- to the desire for "a local champion for people," .."someone who is going to be working hard locally, for the benefit of all."
In November 2006, Burrowes gave an interview on the Vanessa Feltz show criticising the Royal Mail for its decision to issue secular themed stamps over Christmas. The Royal Mail rejected the criticism, saying the stamps were selected by a committee and approved by the Queen.