A recent ConservativeHome survey found that by 84% to 10%, party members would prefer to adopt a person with a track record of commitment to the Conservative Party than someone who has responded to David Cameron's recent call for new candidates. There are many good reasons why some people do not have such a track record. Hamish Fulton, for example, has been serving in the armed forces and he should not be penalised for that.
During my own years in the Conservative Party I have come to know many people who I believe would make excellent MPs. I've drawn up a list of twenty people who, in my personal opinion, have the combination of conviction, compassion and intellectual skills that the next Conservative government will need. I repeat: it's a very personal list. It's not a list that purports to be 'the best candidates' but I publish it in the hope that it might be helpful to some Associations picking candidates and to the individuals themselves.
Sajid Javid, Syed Kamall MEP and Nadhim Zahawi
Another Muslim deserving of a seat on the green benches is London MEP Syed Kamall. He is not a friend in the way that Sajid and Nadhim are friends but I admire his resolute support for free trade, his sincere Euroscepticism, his commitment to the work of the Centre for Social Justice and the fact that he is liked across the political spectrum in Brussels. That ability to get along with people and make deals happen is invaluable.
All three men are outstanding talents.
George Bridges, John Glen, Dominic Schofield and Nick Timothy
- George Bridges deserves a special award for serving the Conservative Party in difficult times. He worked for three years in the Downing Street bunker in the run up to the 1997 defeat. More recently he returned to CCHQ and worked for Michael Howard and then David Cameron. He has written regularly for The Daily Telegraph since he left David Cameron's office to start a family. He is a campaigner for public sector reform and a more balanced approach to immigration.
- John Glen is a former Director of the Conservative Research Department and headed the Political Section for William Hague MP. Other stars who have held that position include George Osborne and David Cameron. I wonder what happened to them? John fought Plymouth Devonport for the Conservatives in 2001 and recently became a Board Member of the Centre for Policy Studies where he champions his vision for lower taxes and deregulation. He currently works in management consultancy.
- Nick Timothy is now Deputy Head of the Conservative Research Department. As well as a key member of the team that helps David Cameron prepare for Prime Minister's Question Time, Nick has also been a key campaign strategist in the teams that have secured victory in the Crewe and Nantwich and Norwich North by-elections. A Brummie by background, Nick is a strong advocate of European reform. In his period away from CCHQ he worked in the insurance industry.
- Educated in a Basildon-comprehensive - where he learnt to speak Spanish, Italian and Russian - Dominic Schofield should have been a MP already. He came within a whisker of winning Battersea in 2005 in one of the best results for the Conservative Party from the last General Election night. After leaving the Conservative Research Department four years ago he returned to the world of headhunting and set up a multi-million pound operation for his American employer in the states of the former Soviet Union. My colleague Jonathan Isaby is a brilliant impersonator but Dominic does the best impersonation of Ken Clarke of anyone I know!
Elizabeth Berridge and Fiona Bruce
Two women I have got to know from the North West:
Fiona Bruce is the head of a community law firm in Warrington and a national winner of Small Business Bureau's businesswoman of the year award "Women into Business" for the founding and successful development of a business. She fought Warrington South at the last General Election - achieving one of the best results in the region. She highlighted Labour's failures on health through Margaret Dixon's case. She has helped establish a primary school in Tanzania and still oversees a free legal advice clinic "The Drop In", Latchford which has opened weekly for the past 18 years. In 2009 she was co-founder of an innovative, comprehensive advice centre at "The Foundry Shop", Widnes, offering free legal advice and support on key issues of debt, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, family and relationships.
Elizabeth Berridge is my successor as Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Based at CCHQ she had the original idea of holding a social action project alongside Tory Conferences. She organised the first such event at the 2006 Spring Forum and similar projects have become a central feature of the Conference timetable. A former barrister Elizabeth is a trustee of "Kainos" - a prison charity that successfully reduces re-offending rates by running rehabiliatation projects in prisons. Her behind-the-scenes work at CCHQ has included significant relationship-building with the British Black and Chinese community. She was our candidate in Stockport at the last General Election.
Now for my three health teamsters:
Simon Chapman (another CentreRight contributor) has lived the change. A former barrister he left the bar for public service after 12 years. Since then he has gained an acute understanding of the third sector as a charity consultant specialising in health and education. As Director of Policy for the National Council for Palliative Care he works in a vital area of national policy - end of life care. He is a big supporter of the Countryside Alliance and fought High Peak for the party in 2001.
Philip Lee wrote an important article for ConHome last July about the lack of scientists and mathematicians in the Commons. Dr Lee is a GP working in South Bucks and Berkshire. He estimates he has seen 40,000 patients over his ten year period of service. He's been a party member since 1992 and fought a high profile campaign in 2005 as our PPC in Blaenau Gwent, where internal strife within the local Labour Party ensured national media coverage.
Julia Manning has enjoyed a successful career in healthcare. She founded four businesses and the third - JMEye-care - has been bought by a national healthcare company. She founded 2020health as a centre right think tank to give grassroots health professionals an opportunity to engage in policy formation. She is doing a lot of under-the-radar work at the moment on understanding how biotechnology will shape all of our futures in dramatic ways. Regular CentreRight readers will be familar with Julia's political views. I probably shouldn't say this but Julia would have no problem passing Gosport's beauty test!
Three big brains are next on my list (without saying the others are small-brained):
Anthony Browne is currently Boris Johnson's policy director, in charge of economic and business policy for London. He was a journalist for nearly twenty years, including economic correspondent for the BBC and chief political correspondent for the Times. He led arguments against mass immigration. He ran Policy Exchange before joining the Mayor's office. He was only in post for 18 months but 'PX' doubled in size during that period.
Ryan Robson is managing partner of Sovereign Capital, a group of education and healthcare businesses. Sovereign has grown eightfold over the last seven years to over £500m and 16,000 employees. He's not just a successful businessman. He has applied his knowledge to the work of the Centre for Social Justice - where I got to know him. He wrote the education section of 'Breakthrough Britain' - Iain Duncan Smith's landmark report into poverty-fighting - and also a more recent report on looked-after children. A party member since 1989 Ryan is a past Chairman of the Conservative Group of Wandsworth Council and a big believer in the Wandsworth approach to government that was explained so powerfully by Ed Lister on these pages one week ago.
Although Liz Truss has been a member of the party since 1996 I have only got to know her reasonably well since she became Deputy Director of Reform last year. Her Black to Black report advocating £30bn of public spending cuts proving that she has exactly the sort of insight that the next government will require. She has also set up Educators for Reform to promote academic rigour in education. Before years working in commercial roles at Shell and Cable and Wireless.
Graeme Archer, James Bethell and Brian Connell
- Graeme Archer is another person well known to ConHome readers. All his CentreRight posts are here. I was delighted to recently support him becoming a member of the Candidates List. He has a doctorate in Statistics, and works in psychiatric R&D for a pharmaceutical company, where he is leading the development of a new medicine for the treatment of depression. In terms of political philosophy Graeme told me that he is more affected by what he sees happening on the bus next to him than by any 'theory' of politics. He hopes to be a champion for 'localism' or what he calls 'swimming pool' Conservatism. This is my favourite quote of his: "If you want someone who can communicate only in 140-character soundbites suitable for a Twitter-war against “the other side”, then do not select me as your candidate. If you want someone who pretends to an intellectual certainty on a subject, when in truth he feels no such thing, then do not select me as your candidate. I will always tell you, with complete transparency, the exact current state of my thinking on any political subject. " You've been warned!
- James Bethell and I have become friends through our joint project - 'Nothing British' - to tackle the BNP and other extremist organisations. Before I knew James he was at the Ministry of Sound, The Sunday Times and Portland PR. He fought Tooting at the last General Election and achieved one of the biggest swings in the country in a tough, diverse seat – halving the Labour majority. He's close to many of the party's leading lights but a little more socially conservative and a little more economically liberal than most of them.
- Brian Connell was Cabinet Member for Schools on Westminster Council where he shut down failing secondary secondary schools and led their replacement with Academies. He is now Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Families. A management consultant with KPMG he has been part of Oliver Letwin's policy unit since last year. He believes that CIty are the only team in Manchester but otherwise Brian would make a great MP.
Tim Montgomerie
