Robert Goodwill was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Transport on 9 December 2015. Robert was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport on 7 October 2013 and again in May 2015. He was elected Conservative MP for Scarborough and Whitby in 2005.

Education

Robert was educated at the Quaker Bootham School in York, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in 1979.

Political career

Robert was elected as a Member of the European Parliament at the 1999, serving in Brussels and Strasbourg until the 2004 European election. He was Deputy Leader of the Conservative MEPs during his term. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for Scarborough and Whitby. After spending 18 months as a member of the transport select committee, he was appointed a Whip in 2006 and promoted to the post of Shadow Roads Minister in the transport team in 2007. He was re-elected at the 2010 general election and appointed to the government as a Whip with responsibility for Treasury and DEFRA business.

Career outside politics

Robert has been a farmer (since 1979) of 250 acres of land near Malton which has been in his family since 1850. He has been the managing director of Mowthorpe Ltd since 1995, which offers environmentally friendly burials in the North Yorkshire countryside.

Personal life

Robert is married and has 2 sons and a daughter.