John is 51 and married with two daughters aged 16 and 12.
His interests include tennis, walking and history. Nine state/grammar schools by the age of 16 worried some prospective employers, but John finished his sixth form studies at Queen's College, Taunton as his parents moved abroad through work.
During his Gap Year he travelled extensively, which included driving new cars from Frankfurt and London to their owners in Iran. Having studied Law, History and Politics at Cambridge and then travelled again after university, John joined the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in 1984. After Sandhurst, he served in Berlin and Northern Ireland as a platoon commander, and then as a Captain with the United Nations in Cyprus, before finishing in Germany as the Battalion Operations Officer.
On leaving the Army in 1988, he became a Fund Manager, specialising in charities and private clients, and was a Director of Hendersons and then Rothschild Asset Management. He remains a member of the Securities Institute and, since leaving the City, has assisted charities and individuals monitor their fund managers. He also writes for the FT’s Investors Chronicle magazine.
John's experience
John was the Conservative Parliamentary candidate in Basildon in 1997, but was beaten by 13,000! He was elected as the Conservative MP for Billericay and District in 2001 with a 4.3% swing. He served on Parliament's Education Select Committee and then became a Shadow Health Minister in 2002. However, he resigned from the Front Benchis post in 2003 in order to vote against the Iraq war.
He was subsequently re-appointed as a Shadow Health Minister and responsibilities included cancer services. In the 2005 election, John was re-elected with a 6% swing. In summer 2007, John moved from Health to join the Opposition Whips Office. In the 2010 General Election, John won the re-drawn seat of Basildon and Billericay with a 9.2% swing. After turning down a PPS position, he was then elected to sit on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Among his Parliamentary interests, John has campaigned to improve cancer services (he is Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer), for greater Government recognition of our Nuclear Test Veterans, and for the lifting of the ban on NHS top-up payments (for which he was nominated a 'Charity Champion' in 2008).