Bob Stewart

With a father in the RAF, Bob Stewart spent most of his early years in the Middle East, moving back to the UK for boarding school in 1959. Stewart attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst aged 17 to complete officer training. He rose to be a lieutenant and completed an in-service bachelor’s degree in International Politics and Strategy at the University of Aberystwyth. Stewart left the army in 1996 after completing seven tours and entered civilian work, holding numerous roles in public affairs including as a senior consultant at Hill & Knowlton Ltd and as chief executive of World Space UK Ltd. Unsurprisingly, Stewart has been passionate about the sector in parliament, particularly on cuts to the defence budget. In 2015, he stated that he was considering resigning in protest of the ongoing cuts. Though he was “delighted” that the government had agreed that defence spending would be guaranteed 2 per cent of GDP, he argued that this was still not enough. Stewart has been a prominent member of the defence committee and Northern Ireland affairs committee, as well as serving on arms export controls and defence sub-committees.