1. Robert Owen Biggs Wilson was born on 4 January 1965 and is an English politician and political author.
16 Facts About Rob Wilson
1. 2.
Rob Wilson was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency in the 2005 general election, being re-elected in the elections of 2010 and 2015, before being defeated in 2017.
3.
Rob Wilson became Minister for Civil Society in the Cabinet Office on 27 September 2014.
4.
Rob Wilson attended Wallingford School and then, between 1984 and 1988, the University of Reading, where he studied history.
5.
Rob Wilson spent his final year at university as the President of the Reading University Students' Union.
6.
Rob Wilson was selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Reading East using a pioneering primary system, which opened the selection to non-party members for the first time.
7.
Rob Wilson won 15,557 votes against Page's 15,082 votes.
8.
Rob Wilson served on the Education and Skills Select Committee, selected by the committee chair.
9.
In July 2007 Rob Wilson was promoted to the Conservative frontbench as Shadow Higher Education Minister replacing Boris Johnson.
10.
Rob Wilson was among Shadow Ministers in the previous Parliament that were not offered a position as a Minister in coalition.
11.
Rob Wilson had earlier been offered a position as a junior government whip but refused this as still writing the same book.
12.
On 8 May 2015, Rob Wilson was again re-elected by the people of Reading East, with 23,217 votes and a majority of 6,520, compared to 7,605 in 2010.
13.
Shortly after retaining his seat in the 2015 general election, Wilson sparked controversy with a remark on Twitter in which he seemed to show a lack of interest in solving his constituency's rising homelessness problem.
14.
Rob Wilson said that putting such small costs on expenses might seem "odd", but said that over a year mileage "does add up".
15.
On 8 June 2017, Rob Wilson was defeated in the general election called by Theresa May in an unsuccessful attempt to increase her majority prior to the negotiations over the exit from the European Union.
16.
Rob Wilson received 23,344 votes, but came second to Matt Rodda, standing for the Labour Party, with 27,093 votes, a majority of 3,759.