Nicholas Boles

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Nick Boles

Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965), known as Nick Boles, is a Conservative Party MP for Grantham and Stamford.

Boles is a former director of Policy Exchange. He is a signatory of the statement of principles of the Henry Jackson Society Project for Democratic Geopolitics, a British neoconservative organisation. He is a former flatmate of Michael Gove. [1]

Since July 2014, Boles has been Minister of State for Skills, jointly for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education, responsible for among other things apprenticeships and further education; and 'international education'.[2]

Biography

Boles's biography on the Policy Exchange website in 2001 stated:

Nicholas Boles is the director of Policy Exchange. He was born in 1965. He read PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford and won a Kennedy Scholarship to study for a master's in public policy at the Kennedy School, Harvard University. In 1995, Nicholas founded Longwall Holdings, a small group of manufacturing businesses supplying the DIY industry; he remains non-executive chairman of Longwall. In 1998, he was elected to Westminster City Council as a representative of the West End ward. He served as chairman of Westminster's Housing Committee from 1999 to 2001. In early 2002, Nicholas acted as associate producer of the West End production of The Mysteries. [3]

Boles states on his official website that before setting up his DIY business he 'worked for a few years in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe, helping state-owned industries prepare for private ownership.' [4]

Boles left Policy Exchange in February 2007 to concentrate on his bid to be Mayor of London and was replaced by the Chief Political Correspondent of The Times Anthony Browne. [5] On his time at Policy Exchange Boles has stated:

My biggest achievement in politics so far has been to set up and run Policy Exchange, which is now the largest and most influential policy research institute on the centre right. While I was its director, Policy Exchange devised policies to make police forces more accountable to local people, to expand the number of places in good schools and to give local communities incentives to build more houses. We also exposed the activities of Islamic extremists in some mosques in the UK and their effect on the attitudes of young British Muslims. Many of our ideas have been adopted by the Conservative Party under David Cameron. [6]

Boles later withdrew from the London Mayoral race after revealing that he was suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma. After Boris Johnson was elected Mayor he appointed Boles as his Interim Chief of Staff. Other Policy Exchange appointees included his cultural advisor Munira Mirza and Dan Ritterband. [7]

Boles was subsequently appointed head of David Cameron's Implementation Unit, where he was responsible for drawing up the Tories' plans for government with Policy Exchange founder Francis Maude.[8]

Political career

Dinner with lobbyists

A seating plan of the Conservative Party's Black and White Ball, in February 2014, was leaked to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in October 2014. The party, which guests pay between £450 and £1000 for a ticket, seats diners with the minister most relevant to them. Whilst planning minister, Boles was listed as sitting at the same table as Mike Slade, "a property developer who is a major donor and has been the subject of cash for access concerns in the past after acknowledging there is “20% truth” in accusations that political donations are made to buy influence" and "two directors of a property firm that specialises in retail development sat at the same table." [11]

Staff

Elliott Chang | Kelham Cooke - Constituency Agent, Grantham and Stamford Conservatives, Councillor and Cabinet member, South Kesteven District Council | Jane Gordon-Cumming [12]

Affiliations

Connections

Contact

Constituency

  • Address: G&S Constituency Office, Grantham Museum, St Peters Hill, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 6PY
  • Telephone: 01476 978121
  • Email: nick.boles.mp@parliament.uk

Parliamentary

  • Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
  • Telephone: 020 7219 7079
  • Email: nick.boles.mp@parliament.uk

Web and Social media

Notes

  1. ↑ Sam Coates, Francis Elliott, Fran Yeoman and Helen Nugent, 'The new generation of Conservative candidates', The Times, 30 April 2009.
  2. ↑ Ministerial appointments: July 2014, Prime Minister's Office, 15 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Internet Archive, Policy Exchange - Biographies, 25 May 2002.
  4. ↑ PDF of <http://www.nickboles.com/about/meet-nick-boles> created 13 May 2010.
  5. ↑ Iain Dale's Diary, 'Nicholas Boles Steps Down from Policy Exchange', 21 February 2007.
  6. ↑ PDF of <http://www.nickboles.com/about/meet-nick-boles> created 13 May 2010.
  7. ↑ Robert Watts and Jonathan Oliver, 'Boris Tory HQ team puts reins on Boris Johnson', Sunday Times, 11 May 2008.
  8. ↑ Andrew Grice, 'Talent 2010: The politician, Nick Boles', Independent, 26 December 2009.
  9. ↑ Nicholas Boles, www.parliament.uk, accessed 19 July 2010.
  10. ↑ Junior Ministerial reshuffle rolling blog, ConservativeHome, 4 September 2012.
  11. ↑ Melanie Newman, Nick Mathiason and Tom Warren Doorstep lender and property moguls amongst guests worth £22bn at Tory fundraiser Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 12 October 2014, accessed 14 October 2014
  12. ↑ Register of Interests of Members' Secretaries and Research Assistants, 23 March 2016, parliament.uk, accessed 19 April 2016
  13. ↑ Sarah Priddy, PIL: Current Members Related to Other Current or Former Members - Commons Library Standard Note, 13 September 2013.
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