About our Member of Parliament – Guto Bebb

Guto first entered the political fray for the Conservative Party as the parliamentary candidate in the Ogmore by-election.  After his baptism of fire, he was adopted to fight the Welsh Assembly seat in the former Conwy Constituency in 2003.  After a hard fought campaign Guto increased the Conservative Vote significantly from 18% to 25% within 5% of the winning Labour candidate.  Building on this electoral platform, Guto was adopted as the parliamentary candidate for the General Election in 2005 taking the Welsh Conservative vote in the Constituency of Conwy to a creditable 2nd place with a positive swing of 5% compared to a national average of less than 1%.  Following his success in being included on the Conservative Party ‘A’ list of candidates Guto was fast tracked through the selection process at the request of the Constituency Party and was unanimously adopted in September 2007 as the Conservative Candidate for the new Aberconwy Constituency.  In May 2010 Guto was elected as the first Member of Parliament for Aberconwy with a majority of 3398 and a 7.6% swing.

Guto has also been interested in European affairs for several years.  He became a member of the Council of Business for Sterling Wales in 2000 and was during the period 2000 – 2003 one of their main contributors to radio and television in Wales.  Once it became apparent that Britain would not be adopting the Euro Guto joined the successor organisation to Business for Sterling, the think tank ‘Open Europe’.  ‘Open Europe’ was responsible for the ‘I Want a Referendum’ campaign which saw Aberconwy chosen as one of ten constituencies throughout the UK where a full postal ballot was arranged in order to allow people to state whether they wanted a say on the Lisbon treaty or not.  On a 37% turnout over 90% of the electorate here in Aberconwy made it clear that they wanted their say on the treaty.

Guto was born and brought up in North Wales and is a Graduate of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.  In 1993 he founded Partneriaeth Egin Partnership, an Economic Development Consultancy which has traded with some success for sixteen years.  Guto also founded and ran a successful bookshop in Caernarfon in partnership with his wife before selling the business in 2002.  He is also the Business Development Director of Innovas Wales and has worked on some very large and prestigious projects over the past three years in this capacity.  Through his work and his political involvement Guto has gained a real understanding of the rural economy, the challenges of self employment and an in depth knowledge of the challenges facing businesses and families in Wales.

He is a family man, having been married to Esyllt for sixteen years.  They have five children – the twins being born during the last election campaign!  A well educated, warm hearted, compassionate and much respected man, Guto has the ability to communicate at all levels and has a capacity for hard work.  He believes in consultation, discussion and fair play and has the experience of having worked and lived in the “real world”.

He is interested in your views and opinions.  So join in the discussion on this website