Sir Julian
Brazier TD is a former MP and government minister. A scholar in Maths and
Philosophy at BNC Oxford, he worked in the City and in management consulting,
co-authoring a major study comparing defence procurement in six NATO nations
and Sweden. He served for 13 years as an officer in the TA, including five with
Special Forces.
Entering
Parliament in 1987, he become the PPS to Gillian Shephard, as a Treasury
Minister in 1990 and then as Employment Secretary. He stepped down in 1993
over defence cuts and co-authored a call for a more considered
approach. In 1986, he led the opposition to the sale of the MoD housing
estate, a campaign which failed to stop the sale but saw the leases extended,
from the 25 years announced, to 200 years and the proposed site exchange
mechanism abandoned.
He served
two Parliaments on the House of Commons Defence Select Committee (1997-2001 and
(2010-14), with nine years as a shadow minister in between – including five as
spokesman for aviation and shipping. In 2010/11, he was vice chair of the
Future Reserves 2020 Commission, and then, in 2014-16, Minister for Reserves in
MoD. From 2018-22 he served as honorary colonel of a reserve cyber unit.
No Easy
Answers (published 1982) won him accolades from the Daily Telegraph and Evening
Standard “A fine old-fashioned broadside into the unprotected underbelly of the
MoD. …hair raising stories of inefficiency, bureaucratic thrombosis in the
machine, and plain incompetence…” (Neil Collins, City editor). He has been
privileged to address RMCS Shrivenham, CHACR and RMA Sandhurst, twelve American
universities, the Australian Defence College and the Australian Land Warfare
Centre.
Today
He is
currently chairman of a security company, and a distinguished fellow of RUSI. He also serves on the Council of the Air
League, on the board of the South East Reserve Forces and Cadets Association,
as a governor of Ampleforth College and as President of Canterbury Sea Cadets.
He is joint patron of the Ukraine Freedom Company, a not-for-profit
organisation which delivers equipment, vehicles and medical supplies to the
Ukrainian Army.