In
2006, Bristow was elected to
Hammersmith and Fulham Council as a councillor for
Fulham Reach ward. He stood down from the council to contest the
Labour-held seat of
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland at the
2010 general election, finishing in second place with 35.6% of the vote. In 2013 he tried, unsuccessfully, to be the Conservative candidate for the constituency of
South East Cambridgeshire making the final short-list but losing out to
Lucy Frazer. After returning to Peterborough, Bristow contested the
2019 Peterborough by-election, finishing in third place behind Labour's
Lisa Forbes and
Brexit Party candidate
Mike Greene. At the
2019 general election, he won the seat with a majority of 2,580 votes. Before his parliamentary career, Bristow had been the chairman of the lobbying trade body, the
Association of Professional Political Consultants, between 2017 and 2019. He was also the director of the healthcare public relations consultancy PB Consulting which he had founded in 2010. Bristow resigned his directorship and handed over control of the firm to his wife in January 2020. It was also renamed as HealthComms Consulting in the same year. As MP, he continued to submit questions to ministers on health issues related to the firm but did not always declare his interests. Bristow has served as a member of the
Health and Social Care Committee since November 2022 and had previously been part of the committee between March 2020 and May 2022. He was appointed as a
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries in February 2022. In April 2020, Bristow discussed in an interview with the
BBC that he had broken restrictions during the first
COVID-19 lockdown by visiting his father before he died of a brain tumour. He commented that "anybody would've done the same". In April 2021,
The Observer reported that Bristow claimed rental expenses of £10,500 between April and November 2020 for his constituency accommodation while renting out three residential properties in
London. Responding to the article, he stated that he had "followed both the letter and the spirit of the rules". In November 2021, Bristow wrote an article in
The Times calling for MPs to be banned from involvement in consultant lobbying. He initially supported
Grant Shapps in the
July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, after Shapps withdrew, Bristow endorsed
Liz Truss. In October 2022, following the resignation of Truss as
Prime Minister, Bristow announced that he would be supporting previous Prime Minister
Boris Johnson in the subsequent
leadership election. On 24 May 2023, Bristow was asked by the
Speaker to leave the House of Commons, owing to his disruptive behaviour. Commons Speaker
Sir Lindsay Hoyle interrupted
Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer during
Prime Minister's Questions to ask Bristow to leave. Bristow was not formally ejected, though Hoyle had threatened to
name him, should he not leave voluntarily. In October 2023, Bristow wrote a letter urging Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak to support a "permanent ceasefire" in the
Gaza war for humanitarian reasons. In further comments on his
Facebook page, he said Palestinians "should not suffer collective punishment for the crimes of
Hamas." Bristow co-chairs the
all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims. He was dismissed as
Parliamentary Private Secretary at the
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for his comments as they diverged from the government's position and "not consistent with the principles of
collective responsibility". Bristow was the first Conservative MP to diverge. In November 2024, Bristow was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the
2025 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election. In May 2025, Bristow was elected as the
Mayor for the
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, succeeding Labour and Co-Operative Mayor
Nik Johnson. ==Personal life==