Ed Mountbatten

**Edward (Ed) Mountbatten** (born 2nd April 1970) is a British Politician and ex-naval and army officer, who served as the Minister of State for Defence in the cabinets of three different leaders of the Conservative and Unionist Party. He also served as the MP for Portsmouth South and now Portsmouth and Fareham under the reformed system. He has served in this capacity since 2010. He is currently the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party under Sebastian Kurz and also Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.

Edward Mountbatten (Ed) was born in Portsmouth in 1970 to military parents. His father and grandfather had both been long standing Naval Officers with over 70 years of service between them. After attending the prestigious Portsmouth Grammar School, like his father, Mountbatten went to the University of Birmingham to study Politics and International Relations. Whilst at university he joined the OTC and in his final year served as head of the army section. After University Mountbatten enlisted in the Army as an Officer aged 24. He was promoted quickly through the ranks to reach the rank of Lieutenant in four years. Mountbatten served in the Bosnian War as a UN Peacekeeper and saw no action.

After these four years Mountbatten switched services to the Navy where after graduating Dartmouth and the Fighter Controller course. He was sent on an intensive French language course to be sent as Royal Naval attache to the 'Foch', a French Aircraft, as a sub-lieutenant. He resided on the side of Le Faron, in a small house for the two year duration of his stay. He saw Naval action during the NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo, from the Adriatic Sea. He also was part of the anti-smuggling operations in the Caribbean sea whilst serving on HMS Manchester.

After retiring from the Navy in 2002 aged 32 he kept to the theme of public service and joined the local Conservative Party organisation. He ran to be a local councillor in 2005 and won. During this period he focused on helping everyone in his local area, with some of the greatest wealth inequality in the nation. He won the Conservative Party candidacy for Portsmouth South in 2010 and narrowly won the seat by 0.2%, which was increased to 0.4% after a recount. He served as a backbench member during the coalition term for three years before being promoted to Minister of State for the Armed Forces. Following the shocking resignation of David Cameron he threw his support behind Will Douglas during the internal elections.

During the 2015 election campaign, Mountbatten came into the election campaign vowing to solve both national and local issues. He won Portsmouth South handily and was duly announced as Secretary of State for Defence when the cabinet was announced to the public. Moutbatten fulfilled this role to the maximum and coordinated an effective campaign against ISIS following the horrific terrorist attacks on Rotherham and Trafalgar Square. This campaign led to no know civilian casualties and destroyed the terrorist organisation known as ISIS.

During the 2017 election he was marginally re-elected to the new seat of Portsmouth and Fareham, during the election campaign Mountbatten toured the South Coast giving speeches in numerous constituencies and also appeared on the Telegraph for an interview with Jeremy Paxman that highlighted Labours shambolic past and stint on the opposition benches.