Alistair Burt - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

He was elected as a councillor to the 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 for Bury North 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.

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.

He is a former officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group, 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 Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit. . He is also a founder and was the 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.