I was born in 1970 into a modest family.  My dad was a hard-working career civil servant in the Ministry of Defence and my mum a housewife who worked part-time to help make ends meet.   I grew up in a warm and loving home with lots of laughter for which I have to thank them both.

After a brief stint in the Army, I read law at Oxford before being called to the Bar.  In 2009, I was made a Queen's Counsel - one of the youngest in the country - and the following year I was also appointed by the Queen as a Crown Court Recorder.

Married for 12 years to my beautiful wife Fiona - a KGGS girl born in Gainsborough - we split our time between London and the Constituency and we have three young children: Ella, Grace and Tom.  Like all working families, our home is a bit of a madhouse, but somehow we seem to muddle through.

I joined the Conservative Party in 1988 and spent two decades pushing leaflets through letterboxes and working hard for local communities before being selected to fight the Sleaford & North Hykeham seat in 2009 in an open primary process open to every voter in the constituency. On 6th May 2010, I was returned to Parliament by the electors of the constituency with a majority just shy of 20,000.