Educated at Woodlands Junior School, he became Head Boy and then won a County Council funded scholarship to Ashville College, Harrogate.

[7] Following a chemical engineering degree at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where he met his wife, Pat, a Durham miner's daughter, he joined Yorkshire Electricity and qualified as an accountant in 1977.

In May 2014, Swales was appointed to the taskforce group for electrification of rail in the north by the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, MP.

He rebelled against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government on university tuition fee increases, welfare issues including the "bedroom tax" and in August 2013 the proposal to take military action in Syria.

In October 2021, after the murder of David Amess, Swales revealed that he stood down because of a 2014 incident in which two men entered his constituency office claiming to know where he lived and threatening to kill him.

He advised the management of Redcar steel works and in August 2015 joined the Board, becoming Chair, of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), the body that represents companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical, polymer, renewable energy and materials, steel and biotechnology process industries in North-East England.

[citation needed] Swales was the founding Chair of mental health charity The Link Tees Valley Ltd. and remained as a Director until 2023.