Leo Docherty

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Docherty in 2020

Leo Docherty (born October 4, 1976 in Glasgow , Scotland) is a Scottish conservative politician. He has been a Member of the House of Commons for the Aldershot constituency since June 2017 . He had previously served with the Scots Guards , then worked in publishing and for the Conservative Party. Docherty is the author of Desert of Death (2007) .

Education, start of political activity

Born in Glasgow, Docherty grew up in Gloucestershire . From 1996 to 2000 he studied Swahili and Hindi at the University of London , after which he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst the following year . From 2001 to 2007 he served in the Scots Guards .

Docherty was first seconded to ceremonial service in London, then served in Germany and then as a British army officer on war missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . After quitting the service, he wrote the book 'Desert of Death', which was published by Faber in 2007 . It was an eyewitness critical account of the current war in Afghanistan.

Docherty then lived in Didcot in Oxfordshire . He was the editor and editor of Steppe magazine. The magazine, which has since been discontinued, dealt with the culture and history of Central Asia, the landscapes there and the peoples living there.

In 2010 he became chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council . He held this position until his election to the House of Commons.

Docherty ran in the Hagbourne constituency in May 2011 for the Conservative for the South Oxfordshire District Council . After the reorganization of the constituencies, his four-year term ended. In contrast, his candidacy in the Wallingford constituency for Oxfordshire County Council in May 2017 was unsuccessful.

Parliamentary career

Docherty ran in 2014 to no avail for the Conservatives in the constituency of Oxford East, which fell back to Labor. In the general election of 2015, he ran in the constituency of Caerphilly, he came third.

In 2017, Docherty was named a Conservative Party candidate for the Aldershot constituency after former Conservative MP Gerald Howarth said he would not run for the House of Commons again. According to the Financial Times , the nomination was preceded by a fierce battle after the party leadership rejected calls by activists in Aldershot to field Daniel Hannan , the prominent Eurosceptic and MEP. Docherty was elected to the House of Commons in 2017.

In the House of Commons , he works on the Defense Committee and the Committees on Arms Export Controls (the former Quadripartite Committee).

He supported Boris Johnson in the election of the party leader for the Conservatives. On July 29, 2019, Johnson appointed him Assistant Government Whip .

In 2019, Leo's brother Paddy Docherty wrote a letter to the Guardian . In it he urged his brother Leo to step down from his offices. He wrote that he was repulsed by the policies of the government of which Leo belonged, that they had become the worst threat to people's lives and freedom. Let Leo do the only decent thing and step back.

Activities in the Gulf States

In the six months following his election to the House of Commons, Docherty made four trips to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The trips cost more than £ 15,000 and were funded by the host countries. Previously, his election campaign had received substantial support (more than £ 10,000) from donors with links to the Gulf States.

As chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council and in his capacity as MP, Docherty has often praised his government's work on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He attracted criticism from opposition MPs and from journalists such as Peter Osborne; On the one hand because of his political connections and on the other hand because he failed to point out a conflict of interests on his part in relation to this region. Docherty denied such conflicts of interest. In his capacity as chairman of the Conservative Committee for the Middle East, he responded to criticism of party donations that the donations did not affect the decisions made by that committee. Docherty's trips abroad cost a total of £ 26,893, the most expensive trip on any House MP since the 2017 election.

Private life

He is married to Lucy Docherty; the couple has two children.

Publications

  • Desert of Death. A Soldier's Journey from Iraq to Afghanistan. Faber and Faber, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-571-23688-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement of the Conservative Party in Aldershot on April 29, 2017
  2. ↑ About Leo . Faber. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  3. ↑ Leo Docherty MP . Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  4. ^ Register of interests . South Oxfordshire Council. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  5. ^ South Oxfordshire Council Election Results 1973-2011 . Plymouth University. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  6. ^ Election results for Wallingford . Oxfordshire County Council. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  7. ^ Former Bicester mayor chosen as Conservative candidate for Oxford East . In: Oxford Mail , December 6, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2018. 
  8. ↑ Subscribe to read . Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  9. ↑ Exclusive: The third candidate shortlisted in Aldershot is Chris Brannigan . Conservative Home. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  10. ↑ HLeo Docherty . Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  11. ^ Message on Twitter from July 3, 2019, accessed on July 20, 2019
  12. ↑ An open letter to my brother the Tory MP: resign from this rogue government . In: The Guardian , September 3, 2019. 
  13. ↑ Leo Docherty . They work for you. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  14. ↑ Britain invokes spy clause to cover up payments to Bahrain . In: The Times , September 22, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2018. 
  15. ↑ Why is the Conservative Party ignoring Palestine? . In: Middle East Eye , February 6, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2018. 
  16. ↑ The Gulf business tycoons backing the Conservative Middle East Council . In: Middle East Monitor , January 27, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2018. 
  17. ↑ MPs sign up for £ 2m of free overseas trips BBC October 18, 2018.
  18. ↑ About Leo . Docherty's private website. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Docherty, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish politician (Conservative Party)
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland