[1] Formerly a British Conservative Party politician, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Worcestershire from 1997 to 2015 and for Worcester from 1992 until 1997.

He studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics in 1976.

In 1987, he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, David Young.

He contested Holborn and St Pancras at the 1987 general election, but was comfortably beaten by the sitting Labour MP, Frank Dobson.

He was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) in 1993 to the energy minister Tim Eggar, and from 1996 he served as PPS to both Ann Widdecombe the prisons minister at the Home Office and Lord Mackay, Lord Chancellor, holding these two positions until the defeat of the Conservative government at the general election of 1997.