29 Facts About Lee Rowley

Lee Rowley previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Industry between 2021 and 2022.

Lee Rowley grew up in Chesterfield and attended St Mary's High School, where he was head boy, graduating in 1999.

Lee Rowley then read for a master's degree, in history, at the University of Manchester.

Lee Rowley has held positions at Barclays, KPMG, Santander UK, and Co-op Insurance, where he was Head of Change at the time of his election to Parliament at the General Election 2017.

Lee Rowley had contributed to the centre-right think tank, the Centre for Social Justice.

Aged 25, Lee Rowley was elected as a Conservative councillor in May 2006 for the Maida Vale ward on Westminster City Council in London.

Lee Rowley was re-elected in May 2010 and was appointed as Cabinet Member for Parking and Transportation.

Lee Rowley faced calls to resign from a range of sources, including the chef Michel Roux Jr and Glenys Roberts, a fellow Conservative councillor in Westminster.

Lee Rowley responded that the earlier statement was not intended to mislead and noted that no punitive action was taken against the council.

Lee Rowley was transferred to a new role as Cabinet Member for Community Services in January 2012.

The councils and Lee Rowley said it resulted in significant financial savings, ensured all libraries stayed open across the three councils while retaining front-line staff, and gave residents access to one million books.

Lee Rowley stood down as a councillor and cabinet member in Westminster in May 2014 to focus on seeking election as an MP.

Lee Rowley stood unsuccessfully at the 2010 general election as the Conservative candidate for Bolsover, where he came second to Dennis Skinner.

Lee Rowley stood again at the 2015 general election as the Conservative candidate for North East Derbyshire, again coming second, but reducing the sitting Labour MP Natascha Engel's majority to under 2,000 votes.

Lee Rowley was elected as the MP for North East Derbyshire at the 2017 general election with a majority of 2,861.

Lee Rowley has argued against his party's efforts to reduce delays in approving schemes.

Lee Rowley argued that the specific Marsh Lane application was wrong in terms of content, location and timing, arguing the rural setting was not right for industrial activity.

Lee Rowley stated that he would support concerned residents, oppose it and put his own objections against it to Derbyshire County Council.

When interviewed in June 2017 by the Financial Times, Lee Rowley said that he had voted for Brexit at the 2016 referendum, but had not actively campaigned for it.

In October 2019, Lee Rowley proposed the loyal address following the Queen's Speech.

Lee Rowley increased his majority from 2,861 to 12,876 at the 2019 general election.

Lee Rowley has been the lead sponsor for a bid to reopen the alternative railway line between Sheffield and Chesterfield, which runs via Whittington, Staveley, Barrow Hill, Eckington, Renishaw and Killamarsh, on part of the route of the former North Midland Railway.

In Parliament, Lee Rowley previously served on the Public Accounts Committee.

Lee Rowley is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fracking, which he set up, and Vice-Chair of an all-party parliamentary group on ovarian cancer.

In May 2020, Lee Rowley was promoted to Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, replacing Ranil Jayawardena.

On 17 September 2021, Lee Rowley was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a lord commissioner of the Treasury, during the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.

On 6 July 2022, Lee Rowley resigned from government, citing Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow Ministers Kemi Badenoch, Neil O'Brien, Alex Burghart and Julia Lopez.

Lee Rowley then proposed Kemi Badenoch for Conservative Party leader in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

Lee Rowley was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing by Liz Truss in September 2022.