Julian Lewis

Sir Julian Murray Lewis (born 26 September 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East since 1997. Lewis served as Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) from 2020 until the 2024 General Election, having previously been Chair of the Defence Select Committee (HCDC), from 2015 to 2017 and from 2017 to 2019. He is the first Parliamentarian to have chaired both the ISC and the HCDC.

Lewis actively pursues the retention and renewal of the British strategic nuclear deterrent, the UK Trident programme which was confirmed in 2016. Since then, his principal focus has been on restoring UK Defence expenditure to 3% of GDP.

Lewis had the Conservative Party whip removed after successfully standing against Boris Johnson's preferred candidate for the chairmanship of the Intelligence and Security Committee, former Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, on 15 July 2020. The whip was restored on 30 December 2020.

A Eurosceptic, Lewis is a supporter of the pro-Brexit groups Leave Means Leave and the European Research Group (ERG). He was one of just 28 Conservative MPs (the 'Spartans') who voted all three times against Theresa May's EU Withdrawal Agreement, regarding it as "Brexit in Name Only". Provided by Wikipedia