Rory Stewart

### Faction(s)

Centre-Conservatives (2010-2019)Remainers (2016-2019)Centre-Right LD (2019-present)

### Current Position(s)

* Leader of the Liberal Democrats (2019 to Present)
* Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border (2010 to Present)

### Previous Position(s)

* Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Water, Forestry, Rural Affairs and Resource Management (2015 to 2016)
* Minister of State for International Development (2016 to 2018)
* Minister of State for Africa (2017 to 2018)
* Minister of State for Prisons (2018 to 2019)
* Secretary of State for International Development (2019)

## Signature

**Roderick James Nugent Stewart** OBE FRSGS FRSL (born 3 January 1973), known as **Rory Stewart**, is a British academic, diplomat, explorer, author, soldier, politician and current leader of the Liberal Democrats. Prior to this appointment, he served as a minister in four different departments of the UK government, before being appointed to his final ministerial role, in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development in May 2019. He resigned from this role later in the year, when Rishi Sunak became prime minister.He is currently representing the constituency of Penrith and The Border, a constituency which he has held ever since 2010.

Born in British Hong Kong, Stewart was educated at the Dragon School and Eton College. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, Stewart worked for Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service as a diplomat in Indonesia and as British Representative to Montenegro. He left the diplomatic 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 in Maysan and Dhi Qar 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*. In 2005 he moved to Kabul to establish and run the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. He was the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights and the Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2008 to 2010.

In 2010 Stewart was elected to the House of Commons and in 2014 was elected chair of the Defence Select Committee. He served under David Cameron as Minister for the Environment from 2015 to 2016. He served as a minister throughout Theresa May’s government as Minister of State for International Development, Minister of State for Africa and Minister of State for Prisons. He ultimately joined the Cabinet and National Security Council as Secretary of State for International Development. After May announced she would be stepping down, Stewart did not publically back any candidate, deeming them to be too right-wing and focused on taking a no-deal Brexit approach. He had also stated that should Rishi Sunak or Boris Johnson become leader of the Conservative Party, that he would resign. Seeing as Sunak won, Stewart resigned from the cabinet on the day the results became known.

Having been kicked out of the Conservative Party due to inherent differences with the leadership after the 2019 GE, Roderick joined the Liberal Democrats and remained in parliament. Due to the lack of leadership, Rory put his name on the ballot to become leader and won in an unanimous decision. His leadership allowed members such as Luciana Berger to shine, and is hallmarked in the party's ability to offer proper opposition towards the Labour government of Redd. Whilst many are positive of his leadership abilities, there have been some critiques on his party structure.