He went to the independent Haberdashers' Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire and studied at Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a double first in History (BA).

He was elected as the MP for Swindon North in 1997 and quickly joined the government, working in various capacities.

[1] In the 2010 Dissolution Honours, he was awarded a life peerage, which was created on 10 July 2010 with the title Baron Wills, of North Swindon, in the County of Wiltshire.

[2] How Michael Wills voted on key issues since 2001:[3] He married Jill Freeman on 19 January 1984 in Westminster.

Michael Wills published two crime novels under the pen name David McKeowen (using his mother's birth name):