Alec has lived within the proposed Wetherby & Easingwold constituency for over 25 years and is regularly out and about campaigning across the area and meeting fellow residents.

Full statement

The son of two teachers, Alec was born in 1976 and educated at his local comprehensive school. He studied mechanical engineering at Brunel University where he graduated with honours in 1998. After graduation, Alec joined the Royal Navy before moving to Yorkshire where he managed the Nanotechnology Facility at the University of Leeds.

Alec has served as the Member of Parliament for the Wetherby area since 2010, winning the Elmet & Rothwell constituency from Labour. Alec's working week is usually spent in the House of Commons Monday to Thursday, before he returns home to hold a mixture of one-to-one advice surgeries, supermarket surgeries and street surgeries on Fridays and Saturdays. Alec is regularly out and about campaigning across the revised Wetherby & Easingwold listening to the views of voters.

Alec has been a committed constituency Member of Parliament and has driven forward a mission to make his constituency dementia friendly, including the publication of his Dementia Directory. Improving dementia services is a personal commitment for Alec and he is already planning the expansion of his Dementia Strategy into Boroughbridge, Easingwold, Tadcaster and surrounding villages.

His constituents describe Alec as someone who gets things done, whether it's supporting local charities, securing victory for a ten year campaign to fund new disabled-access at a local railway station, or delivering funds to rebuild four local schools.

Alec is a former Minister of State for Defence and was in charge of military procurement. During his time in Parliament, Alec has served as a Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Thalidomide and, in conjunction with the Thalidomide Trust, secured the extension of an £80m Thalidomide health grant to support the independent living of victims of the Thalidomide drug. In Parliament, he has also secured Adjournment Debates to raise matters associated with dementia care, welfare support and sentencing for drink-driving offences. He is a champion for workers’ rights and introduced the National Minimum Wage (Workplace Internships) Bill to the House of Commons, calling for the abolition of unpaid internships. Alec has led a series of debates on women's health, calling for further awareness of Endometriosis and better support for patients injured during pelvic mesh surgery.

Alec takes a keen interest in foreign affairs. After a period serving as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 2014 and 2015, former Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Alec as a UK representative to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in December 2015. Since then, Alec has concentrated on defence and security matters within the alliance and was appointed Leader of the UK Delegation in 2020.

Alec has represented the United Kingdom at a number of Rose Roth seminars, bringing together NATO partner countries. He also took part in election monitoring in Georgia’s 2016 General Election.

Alec is a former Vice-Chairman (International) of the Conservative Party, a role which involved building relationships with international sister parties and working with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to enhance democratic institutions and political party structures in the developing world.

Alec is a Formula 1 enthusiast and is a former Deputy Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Formula 1, so he enjoys spending a few hours watching the Grand Prix on a Sunday.