Newman's grandmothers were an Istanbul-born Greek, and a German Jew who fled the Nazis, before training as a doctor at the Royal Free Hospital.
[5] He was said to have helped convince Gove to withdraw his support for Boris Johnson during the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election and run himself.
[7] Under Prime Minister Theresa May, he joined[5] and was director of[2] the think tank Open Europe, being seen as an influential supporter of May's Brexit plan.
[5] In November 2020, Newman was falsely accused of erasing his mobile phone call log during an investigation into a COVID-19 lockdown leak.
[11] On 7 February 2022, after a "mutually agreed decision" with Johnson, he left his role at 10 Downing Street to become an adviser to Gove at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
[12] In 2024, he applied to be the Conservative candidate in Bexhill and Battle to succeed Huw Merriman in the 2024 United Kingdom general election, but was defeated by Crewe and Nantwich MP Kieran Mullan.