| Variations of Name | Roderick James Nugent Stewart |
| Biography | Rory Stewart is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border since 2010. He served in several ministerial roles, including as Secretary of State for International Development in 2019. First elected as a Conservative, Stewart had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and sits as an independent politician.
As a teenager, he was a member of the Labour Party and he has spoken about this in a number of interviews. During his gap year in 1991, he was commissioned in the Black Watch for five months as second lieutenant. He then attended Balliol College where he read Modern History for one year, before switching to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. While a student at Oxford, Stewart was a private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry during the summer.
After education at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, Stewart became a diplomat, working in Indonesia and Montenegro. He left the civil service to undertake a two-year walk across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. He later wrote a best-selling book, The Places in Between, about his experiences. He subsequently served as a Deputy Governor for the Coalition Provisional Authority following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and wrote a second book covering this period, Occupational Hazards or The Prince of the Marshes. He later lectured at Harvard and worked for several non-governmental organizations, including as executive chairman of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.
In 2009, Stewart joined the Conservative Party and was selected as the parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border. He was elected to the House of Commons the following year, and was later elected as Chair of the Defence Select Committee. In 2015, he was appointed to the Cameron Government as Minister of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. From 2016 to 2019, Stewart served in the May Government as Minister of State for International Development, Minister of State for Africa, and Minister of State for Prisons. On 1 May 2019, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development. Stewart stood as a candidate for Leader of the Conservative Party in the 2019 leadership contest, finishing fifth.
On 3 October 2019 Stewart announced he had resigned from the Conservative Party and would stand down as an MP at the next general election. He will stand as an independent candidate in the 2020 London mayoral election. |