Richard Fuller

Richard Fuller^[1] is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedford, where he was born.

Early life

Fuller was educated at Hazeldene School and Bedford Modern School (then a direct grant school), followed by University College, Oxford (1981–84) where he studied Politics, Philosophy & Economics, and Harvard Business School (1987–89) for his MBA.

Professional career

Fuller joined the management consultancy company, LEK Consulting in 1984 as part of their first intake of university graduates. In 1986, Fuller transferred to Sydney to help establish the Australian practice of LEK. After Harvard Business School, he worked in South Korea, before rejoining LEK in Australia and then working for two years on assignment with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) in Manila, Philippines. Fuller moved to the United States in 2004 and rejoined LEK in Los Angeles in 2007. In 2000, he joined the alternative assets firm, Investcorp, to help establish their technology ventures group.

Fuller joined the board of the Osborne Association, a New York based charity working with offenders and ex-offenders in 2002.

Political career

Fuller joined the Conservative party and began delivering leaflets for Trevor Skeet, the MP for Bedford during the 1979 general election.

Fuller was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) in 1983. OUCA’s official historian David Blair singles out Fuller’s “disastrous term of office”. Following the failed nomination of Conservative candidates for the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), Oxford’s student paper Cherwell ran the headline “OUCA falls apart” and Fuller lost a vote of confidence but remained in office. As President, Fuller also provided the first Conservative Party platform for the African National Congress (ANC) then a proscribed terrorist organisation.^[2]

Fuller was elected National Chairman of the Young Conservatives from 1985 to 1987, campaigning on social issues such as housing, changes to drugs policies as well as on tackling unemployment. After Michael Heseltine resigned from Mrs Thatcher’s cabinet over the dispute over Westland helicopters, Fuller provided Heseltine with his first major national party platform. In his farewell speech to the National Young Conservatives conference in 1987, Fuller declared that “I am not a Thatcherite, never have been, never will be.”

Fuller stood as the Conservative candidate for the Bedford constituency in the 2005 general election, losing to the incumbent Labour MP Patrick Hall. Fuller stood again for the Bedford constituency in the 2010 general election, and was elected to office on 6 May 2010,^[3] replacing Patrick Hall.

References

External links

• Richard Fuller MP official constituency blog
• Profile at the Conservative Party
• Bedford and Kempston Conservatives
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live