He subsequently became chairman of the Outdoor Advertising Association[3] and chief executive of the Retail Motor Industry Federation.

[5] Carrington first stood for Parliament at Tottenham in 1979, coming second to the incumbent Labour MP Norman Atkinson.

Carrington returned to the backbenches before joining John Major's government against as an Assistant Whip between 1996 and the 1997 general election, simultaneously serving as Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee.

[11] Carrington is a non-executive director of the Sharia-compliant Gatehouse Bank and the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, as well as a trustee of St John's, Notting Hill.

Mary Lou held senior positions at the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange between 1985 and 1998, and was an assistant vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago, where Matthew Carrington had also worked.