Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood

Tobias Ellwood was the MP for Bournemouth East for 19 years. In his time in Parliament, he served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with special responsibility for the Middle East and Africa and was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence.

Shortly after being first elected to Parliament Tobias was appointed Opposition Whip. He was then promoted to the post of Shadow Minister for Culture Media and Sport where he was responsible for a portfolio including tourism, gambling, and licensing. After the 2010 General Election, Tobias was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary, the Rt. Hon Liam Fox MP and appointed to similar positions for the Minister for Europe, the Rt Hon David Lidington MP, and the Health Secretary, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP. He was then promoted to the Foreign Office with responsibility for the Middle East and Africa.

Tobias was Parliamentary Advisor to the Prime Minister for the 2014 NATO Summit and a member of the Parliamentary Delegation to the NATO Assembly 2014. He has written publications on post-conflict stability, Royal Navy aircraft carriers, the future of Afghanistan and the weaponisation on space and daylight saving. He spent six years in the Regular Army with The Royal Green Jackets, and served in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kuwait, Germany, Gibraltar, and Bosnia. Tobias now has the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a reservist in the 77th Brigade. On leaving the army, he worked as a researcher for the former Defence Secretary, the Rt Hon Tom King MP (now Lord King) in Westminster, and in his constituency of Bridgwater.

After completing an MBA at City University Business School. Tobias moved to the London Stock Exchange for two years where he was a Senior Business Development Manager and, he then worked in a similar role for law firm Allen and Overy. Tobias completed the senior executive course in National and International Studies at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His proposal for military forces to develop greater stabilisation capability, put forward in his publication 'Post Conflict Reconstruction: Bridging the gap between military and Civilian affairs on the modern battlefield' became part of the coalition Government's policy.

During his time as an MP, Tobias pioneered the concept of ‘social action’ within the Party. The concept of raising funds and rallying MPs and volunteers around an identified community project is now well established and he regularly leads projects both in the UK and abroad, previously joining projects in countries including Bosnia and Bangladesh.