About Andrew

Andrew grew up in Aberdeenshire spending the first years of his life in Alford, a village within the constituency of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.  Andrew moved at a young age to the town of Inverurie where he attended Market Place School and Inverurie Academy.

Upon leaving school Andrew joined the Royal Navy in which he served as an officer for 3 years, a career that took him around the world to Brazil, Bahrain, Gibraltar and The Falklands. His duties back home included work for the ceremonial events commemoration team.  Following this Andrew returned to the North East, studying politics and history at the University of Aberdeen.

Andrew began his political career in 2014 when he became the Conservative campaign manager for the North of Scotland, organising the party machinery for the 2014 European Election, the Scottish Independence Referendum and 2015 General Election.  Andrew then worked for Conservative MEP Ian Duncan as his Parliamentary Assistant and Rural Affairs Policy Adviser.  Andrew was recruited by Liam Kerr MSP following his election to the Scottish Parliament in 2016 where he was Head of Office based in the Scottish Parliament.

In 2017 Andrew was selected as the Conservative and Unionist candidate for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.  Andrew was elected with a total of 24,704 votes, a majority of 7,949.  Andrew became the first Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine since its creation in 1997.

Since June 2017 Andrew has represented the people of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine as their Member of Parliament in Westminster.  In March 2018 he became the first new Scottish MP and the first of the 2017 intake, to be promoted when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In January 2019 Andrew was promoted to Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.

In August 2019 Andrew was appointed Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, covering the Union and Youth within the party. Andrew described the appointment as a great honour. He held this position until November 2021. Following a snap election in December 2019 Andrew was re-elected by the residents of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine to represent them once again, many constituents voting Conservative for the first time as a result of Andrews hard work locally and tireless approach to individual casework issues. Andrew was again re-elected in July 2024.

Andrew was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports in October 2022 until February 2023. That month he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Following the election on the 4th July 2024 Andrew was appointed Shadow Minister for Veterans and Shadow Minister for Energy. Since the election of Kemi Badenoch as Leader of the Conservative Party Andrew has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Shadow Minister for Energy.