Lee Benjamin Rowley (born 11 September 1980) is a British politician and former management consultant who has served as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition since November 2024.

The son of a milkman, both his grandfathers were miners at pits in the area, including the Westhorpe and Shirebrook collieries – both of which closed under Conservative governments in the 1980s and 1990s.

[4][5][6] Rowley became the first member of his family to attend university in 1999, when he won an exhibition to study Modern History at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a second-class honours.

[16] Dubbed a "nightlife tax" by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, and following the High Court blocking the introduction of the parking charges, the plans were dropped when its architect, council leader Colin Barrow, resigned.

[19][20][21][22] Rowley also faced calls to resign from a range of sources, including the chef Michel Roux Jr and Glenys Roberts, a fellow Conservative councillor in Westminster.

[23][19] As the cabinet member for parking, Rowley received media attention after the council was censured by the European Commission for infringing contract laws - and criticised for earlier claiming in a press release it had been "cleared of any wrong-doing".

Rowley was alleged to have falsely claimed in a press release that: "We always maintained this contract was properly awarded following a tender process carried out in accordance with the law and we are obviously pleased that the EU has decided to close this case."

He received positive national media coverage for a merger of library management across the London councils of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea.

He stood again at the 2015 general election as the Conservative candidate for North East Derbyshire, again coming second, but reducing the sitting Labour MP Natascha Engel's majority to under 2,000 votes.

[34] Along with fellow Conservative MP Luke Graham, Rowley helped set up and is Co-Chair of Freer, an initiative of the right leaning think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs.

[45] On 17 September 2021, Rowley was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a lord commissioner of the Treasury (Government whip), during the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.

[46] On 6 July 2022, Rowley resigned from government, citing Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, in a joint statement with fellow Ministers Kemi Badenoch, Neil O'Brien, Alex Burghart and Julia Lopez.