After graduating Burnett worked for a decade in Azerbaijan,[3] before returning to Scotland where he started a number of businesses with his family, including property developer North Banchory Limited and its biomassrenewable energy subsidiary Hill of Banchory ESCo Limited (HoBESCo).[4] Aside from this, Burnett is also the owner of an estate in Aberdeenshire, and the beneficiary of a couple of property-owning trusts, that in total have an estimated value of almost £30 million.[4]
In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election Burnett stood as the Conservative Party candidate for the Aberdeenshire West constituency and won the seat with 38.1% of the vote, unseating the incumbent candidate SNP candidate Dennis Robertson who only received 35.5%.[6] Burnett has been re-selected by the Scottish Conservatives as the candidate for Aberdeenshire West in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
The Scottish Parliament's cross-party Standards Committee unanimously found that Burnett had broken the Parliament's code of conduct by submitting written questions while failing to indicate a financial interest in mid-September 2017, but did not apply any sanctions.[4] However two weeks later the Committee again found that Burnett had broken the code of conduct in a similar way,[7] and sanctioned the MSP by banning him from asking written questions for two weeks.[8]
Burnett is the Conservative spokesperson for energy in the Scottish Parliament.[9] He sits on the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament.[10]
At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election Burnett was re-elected for Aberdeenshire West with an increased majority of 3,390 votes as his vote share rose by 9.1%.[11]The Scotsman reported that the seat had been forecast to produce a close contest and his holding of it was seen as "a significant blow to the hopes of an outright SNP majority" in the Scottish Parliament as a result of the election.[12]
Personal life
Burnett is married to Lavinia Cox, with whom he has a son and two daughters.