Daniel Kawczynski

Early life

Kawczynski was born on the 24 January 1972 in Warsaw. As a seven-year-old, he came to England with his parents from Poland.^[5] He was privately educated at St George's College, Weybridge, an independent Roman Catholic school in Surrey, followed by Birmingham Polytechnic and then the University of Stirling where he read Business Studies with Languages,^[6] and was President of the University Conservative Association in 1991.

Kawczynski worked in the business entertainment industry before he became an international account manager in the telecommunications industry, a position he held for ten years.^[6]

Parliamentary career

Kawczynski unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Parliament in the 2001 general election for Ealing Southall in London but came second with 18% of the vote.^[7]

At the following general election Kawczynski was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency and was elected at the 2005 general election, succeeding Labour's Paul Marsden with 37.7% of the vote, compared to 34.1% for Labour and 22.8% for the Liberal Democrats.^[8] He was re-elected at the 2010 general election with 43.9% of the vote, compared to 29.0% for the Liberal Democrats in second.^[9] Kawczynski held his seat in the 2015 general election and the 2017 general election.^[10]

Upon entering Parliament he established the All Party Parliamentary Group for milk farmers to help milk farmers in his constituency. ^[11] He sat as a member of both the International Development Select Committee and the Justice Select Committee, but was criticised by the Birmingham Post in 2009 for failing to regularly attend the meetings of the Select Committees to which he had been appointed.^[12] Kawczynski was recorded as having attended only 12.5% of all Justice Select Committee meetings and 31.3% of International Development Select Committee meetings during that last Parliamentary session. He stated the figure for the international development committee was wrong and he had been unable to attend the justice committee meetings because they clashed.^[12] The media noted his high attendance of debates during the 2010–2015 Parliament, which amounted to 29,^[13] noting that he had voted on 80.06% of issues, which is considered as above average amongst MPs.^[14]

In 2007, he signed an Early Day Motion that welcomed the "positive contribution made to the health of the nation by the NHS homeopathic hospitals".^[15] In May 2008, he voted to lower the abortion time limit to 12 weeks,^[16] and has stated that he believes an abortion limit of 24 weeks is incompatible with the kind of "Christian society" he wishes to live in.^[17] He also voted against a House of Lords amendment to abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel under common law.^[18] The abortion time limit vote failed and the blasphemy vote passed. Kawczynski voted in favour of same sex marriage in 2013, revealing shortly afterwards that he was in a same-sex relationship.

In 2006, Kawczynski briefly appeared on the "Better Know A District" segment of American satirical programme The Colbert Report. In October 2009, Kawczynski appeared on The Doha Debates as a delegate supporting the motion of "This house deplores the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi".^[19]

In September 2012, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the new Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones MP.^[3] When Jones lost his job, Kawczynski became advisor to the Prime Minister David Cameron on Eastern and Central European Diaspora ^[20]

Kawczynski was chairman of the All-Party Group for Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2016, during his time as chairman he led a number of delegations to the country,^{[21][22][23][24]} he was chairman of the All-Party Group for Libya but that group now ceases to exist,^[25] chairman of the All-Party Group for Poland^[26] and a vice-chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.^[27]

Kawczynski is a keen supporter of fox hunting^[28] and advocates keeping the First Past the Post voting system.^[29]

Kawczynski has expressed support for a prospective Jacob Rees-Mogg leadership bid.^[30] In the 2016 leadership election, Kawczynski confirmed his support for Michael Gove via Twitter. However, his tweet was subsequently deleted as he had mistakenly tweeted support for a ‘Michael Grove’ instead.^[31]

Kawczynski has previously served on the Justice Select Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the International Development Committee and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.^[32]

Controversies

In the wake of the Westminster Parliamentary Expenses scandal in 2009, Kawczynski was ordered to repay £4000 for rent costs that he had over-claimed. He defended his position as the 13th highest expenses claimant in the entire country on the grounds that the figures were 'skewed', detailing that figures had been boosted by one off costs, such as the redesign of his website and additional research costs.^[33]

In 2010 Kawczynski published a book called Seeking Gaddafi about Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Paul Staines, publisher of the 'Guido Fawkes' political blog, has accused Kawczynski of using 5,000-word essay submissions by interviewees for an unpaid internship as the basis of his book commenting on the inconsistency of style throughout the book and similarity of chapter titles to the submitted essays.^[34] When Kawczynski later advertised another unpaid internship^[35] for his new book entitled Saudi Arabia, Staines claimed that this was "nothing but a con."^[34]

In October 2013, Kawczynski received widespread press attention for berating a one-legged wheelchair user for begging outside the Houses of Parliament.^[36][37][38]

It emerged in early November 2017 that Kawczynski had been reprimanded in front of witnesses by Eleanor Laing, the Conservative MP and deputy speaker, for asking a young researcher employed by Laing to go on a date with a rich businessman contact of his who was "older than her father".^[39] The incident in January 2013, according to Channel 4 News in November 2017, was preceded by an intermediary making the same approach several times. Laura Hughes, writing for The Daily Telegraph, reported that Kawczynski has been referred to the Conservative's new disciplinary committee. He has admitted to the incident, but rejects the accusation of inappropriate conduct.^[40]

Views on Saudi Arabia

Kawczynski is a vociferous supporter of the Saudi Arabian government^[41] On one of his trips to Saudi Arabia, Kawczynski told Salman Al Saud (who is now King) how proud he was of the military cooperation between the two countries. He later said that he was writing "the most pro-Saudi book ever written by a British politician" and that he had been "battling against extraordinary ignorance and prejudice against Saudi Arabia for many years".^[41] After coming out as bisexual, Kawczynski’s visits to Saudi Arabia did not lessen^[42] despite LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia being amongst the worst in the world. In Saudi Arabia both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal, with punishments ranging from fines, floggings and life in prison, to torture and the death penalty.^[43]

Following an appearance on Newsnight in which he defended the Saudi regime's approach to the war in Yemen and accused the programme of bias, Kawczynski threatened legal action after its editor Ian Katz suggested his strength of feeling on the issue might be linked to the size of the budget for his expenses on trips to Saudi Arabia.^[44] After Justice Secretary Michael Gove cancelled a prison contract with Saudi Arabia, Kawczynski was so enraged that he slapped his forehead and shouted "no!" during a parliamentary debate on the issue.^[41][45]

Work on improving Anglo-Polish relations

Since becoming the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Poland in 2014, Kawczynski has supported a range of enterprises from his constituency in seeking business partners and export markets in Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries, offering support and advice.^[46] Kawczynski has been a frequent visitor to the British Polish Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw where he often described the importance of trade between Poland and the United Kingdom. Kawczynski has also cooperated with the Federation of Small Businesses and the UK Trade & Investment in Serbia and in Poland.^[47]

During a visit on 1 September 2014, Kawczynski stressed the need for the Polish diaspora in the UK to foster the trade relationship between the two countries.^[47] In September 2014, Kawczynski visited Krynica International Economic Forum, where he participated in various economic debates and conferences, notably the "Poland – Science and Innovation – Strategies for Growth"^[48] where he focused on explaining the importance of improving the cooperation between British, Polish and German universities. In 2016 he visited the Krynica Economic Forum and was invited to a panel on the future of the European Union. He appealed for an increased importance of NATO and a closer cooperation between the Visegrad Group and the United Kingdom.^[49]

The Polish community in the United Kingdom created a grass-roots portal promoting Kawczynski's activities which foster the British-Polish links. The portal under the name "Daniel Kawczynski – British-Polish Relations"^[50] describes the events that Kawczynski organised for the Polish community, the meetings he had with Polish war veterans and politicians as well as his actions in promoting the post-Brexit rights of EU citizens. During Polish President's visit to London in September 2015 Kawczynski co-hosted an event with Defence Secretary Michael Fallon paying a tribute to over two dozens of Polish war veterans who fought together with the Allies during the Second World War.^[51] In July 2016 Kawczynski held a first ever Westminster Hall debate on the positive influence of Polish immigrants to the UK economy which gathered 23 MPs.^[52] In 2016 Daniel Kawczynski was distinguished as an "Outstanding Pole Abroad of 2016"^[53] for his efforts in promoting trade and political relations between the United Kingdom and his country of birth. On 18 July 2017 Kawczynski hosted another British-Polish event in the House of Commons, where he criticised the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and called for permanent NATO bases to be established in eastern Poland as a sign of increased cooperation between Poland and the UK.^[54]

In 2017 Kawczynski joined calls for Germany to pay war reparations for crimes committed against the Allies and for the destruction of Poland during the Second World War. On 15th October 2017 the MP sent a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to stop demanding money from the UK during the Brexit negotiations and start paying what they owe Poland.^[55] Chancellor Merkel has not yet replied to his letter.