ABOUT ME
I am not a career politician. That’s the important thing.
After stepping down from JLA, ‘the UK’s leading speaker bureau’ (FT), I now live in the heart of Bury – yards from where my grandfather once worked behind a grocery counter. Nothing makes me happier than setting up home where his journey started more than a century ago.
I founded JLA in 1990, providing new wave comedians for recession-weary audiences. We went on to uncover talent like Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Carr and Tim Minchin, and seized the chance to do the same with the world of public speaking. As well as bringing over statesmen from Gorbachev to Clinton we launched hundreds of experts, motivators and after dinner speakers onto the circuit.
My clients included Mark Carney when he left the Bank of England, and former heads of the British Army, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police. I also represented ex-politicians from across the spectrum – from David Blunkett, the late Alistair Darling and Charles Kennedy to William Hague, Ruth Davidson and Rory Stewart. And I confess to being Boris Johnson’s speaking agent until he entered No.10!
Johnson’s disastrous performance as Prime Minister was the turning point. I had to become politically active, not just engaged. I want to give voice to the middle ground, encourage other moderate ex-Tories to step forward as Independents, and help to remove a party that has lost its compass.
As an Independent I have no interest in climbing the greasy pole to high office, and I won’t be distracted by a lucrative second job! My time will be focused on serving the people of Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding towns and villages. I’ll be guided throughout by a ready made network of experts on everything from parliamentary procedure to developing technologies.
Please get involved in the campaign. Register as a volunteer or simply sign up for the latest news, follow us on social media, tell us what you’d do if you were PM (see Make a Law!), and join me and the IndependentLEE team at our Let’s Talk events coming to a venue near you.
Presenting a Live Briefing during Covid with digital education entrepreneur Priya Lakani, European Space Agency business lead Frank Salzgeber and football legend Eni Aluko
"JEREMY IS THE DOYEN OF THE SPEAKER CIRCUIT”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ memoir: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
WHAT EX-PRIME MINISTERS DO NEXT
Speaking agency founder Jeremy Lee, recently retired, is gloriously indiscreet as he regales Aggie with stories of his conversations with ex-prime ministers seeking riches down the years.
Speaking to business leaders
Cross-party breakfast with Ashdown, Blunkett and Portillo
Strictly friends
My ‘Non-Retirement’ party with guests Dara Ó Briain and Omid Djalili, Danny Finkelstein, Hugh Dennis and William Hague, David Blunkett and Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and Nick Hewer
JOIN US
If you have a little time to spare, fill out the form below and be part of a groundbreaking campaign…
Yes we have a mountain to climb. But with a brilliant team of volunteers, common sense solutions instead of left/right ideology, and freedom from party machines... we can win.
Let’s burst the Westminster bubble, raise some smiles and MAKE 4th July INDEPENDENTS’ DAY!
THE BIG ISSUES
When the Tories and Labour admit that the economy is up the creek thanks to a hard Brexit, as well as pandemic and Putin, we might begin to limit the damage.
There were reasons why so many voted Leave. Austerity put paid to spending on infrastructure, communities were left behind, Boris Johnson did his spiel, Labour was absent and the papers blamed every ill on Brussels. Eight years later the dying embers of the Conservative party, of which I was once a member, still trade on these divisions in a shameless attempt to cling onto power.
Sunak has the bare-faced cheek to describe his Northern Ireland deal as “the best of both worlds," but he won’t contemplate closer ties to the world’s biggest trading bloc for rest of the UK. Starmer is too scared to utter the ‘B’ word for fear of causing upset. Yet the Office for Budget Responsibility say we will be 4% worse off outside the EU – equivalent to tens of billions on health, education, pensions, policing and the environment.
Post-Brexit Britain
We can’t turn the clock back to some imagined golden age but we can renew our vows to each other and rebuild the country for future generations. Experience tells us that the answer doesn’t lie in right or left wing ideology. It’s about competence, fairness, forward thinking, security and solid foundations for a dynamic economy. And it’s about being honest.
What you see when you click the button below is not a manifesto, it’s a range of ideas. As an Independent I can’t promise any of them will be adopted. I can only promise to listen to and speak up for you, to do everything possible to bring opposing sides together, and to support common sense solutions whoever proposes them.
The infamous bus