Robert Syms

Robert Andrew Raymond Syms (born 15 August 1956) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Poole in Dorset since 1997.

Syms was born in Chippenham in 1956 and educated at Colston's School. He was leader of North Wiltshire District Council from 1984-7 and a Wiltshire County Councillor from 1985-97. He was managing director of his family's plant hire firm in Bristol Road in Chippenham and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building.

He retains a directorship and shareholding in Marden Holdings Ltd headquartered in Bristol Road, Chippenham.

He contested Walsall North in 1992, but was first elected to the House of Commons as MP for Poole in the 1997 general election.

Syms served on opposition front bench from 1998 to 2007. He was shadow spokesman for environment, transport and the regions between 1999 and 2001, an opposition whip for a few months in 2003, and shadow minister in the office of the deputy Prime Minister and for communities and local government between 2003 and 2007. He was also vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party between 2001 and 2002.

Syms was an Assistant Whip for the Coalition government between 2012 and 2013. He has served on a variety of Select Committees, acting as Chair of the Regulatory Reform select committee from July 2010 to September 2012 and the High Speed Rail select committee from April 2014 to February 2016.

Syms organised a letter signed by more than 80 fellow Eurosceptic Tory MPs urging David Cameron to continue as Prime Minister regardless of the result of the EU referendum in 2016. He backed Theresa May's leadership bid following Cameron's resignation, and was appointed as a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury upon May's succession.

He married Nicola Guy in March 1991 in Chippenham, but divorced in 1999. He married Fiona Mellersh in February 2000 in Kensington. They have a daughter (born July 2000) and a son (born November 2001). They are now separated.