Background
Barclay was born in 1990 in Dipton, where his parents Maree and Paul Barclay ran the Four Square supermarket.
Barclay was born in 1990 in Dipton, where his parents Maree and Paul Barclay ran the Four Square supermarket.
The family moved to Gore, where he obtained his education from Gore High School, before graduating from Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelor of Commerce in Commercial Law.
Prior to his election, Barclay worked at parliament for Bill English (the Member of Parliament he replaced), Gerry Brownlee and Hekia Parata before moving to Auckland and working for Philip Morris. Barclay insists that with regards to working for a tobacco company, his ethics are strong: "I don"t smoke, I don"t encourage smoking". Barclay is currently the youngest Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives.
Barclay became not only the youngest Member of Parliament in the new Parliament, but also the first New Zealand Member of Parliament to be born in the 1990s.
On 10 April 2015 Barclay featured in news media for criticising supporters of popular current affairs show Campbell Live which had been threatened with closure. He subsequently deleted his comment.
On 9 February 2016, Glenys Dickson, a senior electorate agent for Barclay, resigned because of an "employment problem" between the two. Dickson, originally the electorate agent for Bill English from 1998 to 2014, became Barclay"s agent in 2014 after he replaced Bill English as the Member of Parliament for Clutha-Southland.
The circumstances leading to her resignation are confidential.
Later that month Stuart Davie, the Clutha-Southland chairman, became the third resignation of Barclay"s staff in 2016, Barbara Swan being the first. Davie claimed it was "untenable" to stay on at present.
