Search for 100 Peers: Iain Dale

Here is the latest nomination in our series highlighting people David Cameron should consider appointing to the House of Lords, since any Conservative administration formed after the general election would be able to call upon the support of the lowest number of Conservative peers in history.

If you would like to nominate someone, please email Jonathan Isaby with your suggestion, including key arguments for the nomination as well as biographical information. The sources of nominations will be treated confidentially where requested.

No. 64: Iain Dale

The bottling can last much longer. It's just 24 hours until 'Declaration Day'. It my be that one or two Tory MPs will make last minute retirement decisions and the likes of Iain Dale will have one last opportunity to fight for a Commons constituency but time is running short.

Iain was one of my twenty top tips to become an MP but it now looks unlikely that he'll make it.

Iain's dedication to the Conservative Party is very evident. Sometimes that commitment has not borne fruit. 2005 wasn't a good year for Iain. He fought unsuccessfully against Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb and he was David Davis' chief of staff during the former Shadow Home Secretary's bid for the Tory leadership.

The case for Iain is fivefold:

• He's been dedicated to the Conservative Party throughout the lean years. I remember hearing him regularly on Radio Five Live in the party's darkest times; defending the party, flying the blue flag.
• He's consistently been one of the party's very best media performers - unflappable, lucid, humorous - representing our party more frequently than 90% of MPs and usually twice as effectively. Donal Blaney calls him TV's Iain Dale.
• He's a successful businessman. Politicos Publishing was very profitable and he's now making a success of BiteBack publishing - not least with Peter Watt's Inside Out.
• He knows how law-making works and was a leading player in the successful fight to abolish the National Dock Labour Scheme.
• He'll work hard. Any Conservative government will be a minority government in the Lords - outnumbered by Labour, Liberal Democrat and crossbench peers. We can't afford too many people who regard being in the Lords as an honour for past works. We need not just working peers but hard working peers. Having worked with Iain I'm constantly amazed at his work-rate. He's more than capable of being an excellent member of the Upper House.

Tim Montgomerie