Julian Brazier

Sir Julian William Hendy Brazier TD (born 24 July 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Canterbury. He was a shadow transport minister (until May 2010), (with responsibility for Aviation and Shipping) and is a prominent member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship.
He was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Ministry of Defence in the reshuffle on 15 July 2014, and retained the position after holding his seat in the 2015 general election. Following the government formation by Theresa May in July 2016, he stood down as Minister and returned to the backbenches.

Born into a military family, his father being a lieutenant colonel, Brazier was educated at two independent schools: the Dragon School in Oxford and Wellington College in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire, followed by Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating from Oxford University with a joint honours BA degree in mathematics and philosophy, later promoted to an Oxford MA. He was the president of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1973. He also attended the London Business School in central London.

Brazier joined the Territorial Army aged 19 in 1972 and served for 13 years, five of which were with 21 SAS(R). He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1993. He was employed by Chartered Consolidated Ltd between 1975 and 1984, being involved in economic research from 1975 to 1977 and corporate finance from 1977 to 1981, and was on the executive committee of the board from 1981 to 1984, when he became a management consultant with HB Maynard International, now owned by Accenture.

Brazier contested the 1983 general election in Berwick-upon-Tweed, but was defeated by the Liberal MP Alan Beith by 8,215 votes. He contested the Conservative safe seat of Canterbury at the 1987 general election following the retirement of the sitting MP Sir David Crouch. He held the seat with a majority of 14,891. He has remained as the MP for Canterbury since.

Brazier became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Treasury Gillian Shepherd. He remained Shepherd's PPS after the 1992 general election in her new capacity as the Secretary of State for Employment, but he resigned in 1993 as a protest against defence cuts. He was awarded the 'Backbencher of the Year' at the annual Spectator magazine awards in 1996. Following the 1997 general election, he became a member of the Defence Select Committee.

It was not until after the 2001 general election that Julian Brazier was given a job by Iain Duncan Smith, initially as an Opposition Whip in 2001, he became a spokesman on Work and Pensions in 2002. He was briefly Home Affairs spokesman in 2003, before being moved later in the year by the new Leader of the Opposition Michael Howard to be a spokesman on International Affairs. Brazier remained on the frontbench after the 2005 general election as a spokesman on Transport.

Julian Brazier is a member of the Cornerstone Group of Conservative MPs. This group is considered to be on the right of the Conservative Party, and away from the more centrist direction of the leadership. As a practising Roman Catholic, Brazier has been a long-standing defender of socially conservative values. Brazier supported a bill put forth by Laurence Robertson in June 2005 that would almost entirely ban abortion. In 2008, he proposed a law that would allow parliament to ban films and games, even if the BBFC had approved them. Unlike many Cornerstone members, Brazier does not belong to Better Off Out, which advocates EU withdrawal. However, in the run up to the 2016 EU membership referendum, Julian Brazier came out in favour of leaving the EU.

Because of his military background, Brazier has a special interest in the armed forces and has long been an advocate of military issues in the House of Commons. He was also a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014. In May 2014 he was one of eight candidates for the chairmanship of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. Although unsuccessful, he came third on the first round, and was only eliminated after six rounds of voting. He is one of the MPs who employs a family member to assist him.

Brazier was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for his work on promoting outdoor adventure in the face of Britain's growing compensation culture, and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.

Brazier was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours.

Julian Brazier married Katharine Elizabeth Blagden on 21 July 1984 in north-east Hampshire; the couple have three sons (twins born July 1990, and another son born December 1992). His youngest son John Brazier was elected councillor for Westgate ward at the Canterbury City Council election, 2015. He is the son-in-law of Brigadier Paddy Blagden, a United Nations de-mining expert.

In February 2002, he was given a four-month suspended sentence following the death of a motorcyclist in a traffic accident in Italy on 29 August 2001. He was driving on the wrong side of the road approaching a sharp bend when he hit a motorcyclist, 42-year-old Carlo Civitelli, near Siena. He used his TA training to give Mr Civitelli first aid at the scene, but the man died three days later. Italian police found that Mr Civitelli's helmet was not properly fitted and that he was probably speeding. After the verdict, Julian Brazier said in a statement: "I am still deeply saddened by the tragic consequences of my lapse of attention. My thoughts are with the Civitelli family whose reaction to the whole terrible business has been so generous". He also said "as a parent, I shall carry the memory of this man's death with me for the rest of my life."