[4] He received a master's degree in contemporary British history at Queen Mary University of London.
[5] Hillman worked for Conservative MP David Willetts, first as a Senior Research Officer from 2000 to 2003.
[10] He represented himself as a "liberal Tory", but The Independent reported he was "not getting much help from the party's big guns".
[12] From 2010 to 2013 he was a special adviser in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when Willets was Science Minister.
As a special adviser Hillman helped introduce higher university tuition fees.