One Question

I was born in Edgware, a north London suburb, in January 1963. My father was a taxi driver. My paternal grandparents were Jews who came to Britain from Romania about 100 years ago.

Who am I?

As a schoolchild, I was once ranked as Britain’s top junior tennis player. My lack of height prevented me from pursuing tennis as a professional career (I am now 1.68 metres tall). I graduated from the University of Essex in 1985 with a first-class honours degree in government.

I am married and have three children. I am a fan of Arsenal Football Club. Before getting a job in politics, I had worked in merchant banking and for a lobbying firm.

I became a member of the British parliament in 1997, when I won the constituency of Buckingham for the Conservative Party. I was re-elected in 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2017. During my time in politics, my views changed from being very right-wing to socially liberal.

I was once described in the Daily Mail newspaper as “preening, sycophantic, short-tempered and grotesque”. On the other hand, I once described the

Daily Mail as “sexist, racist, bigoted”. When I began my latest job, in June 2009, I left the Conservative Party. On 9 September this year, I announced my resignation from this job, as of 31 October 2019.

In 2014, I published a book called

Tennis Maestros: The Twenty Greatest Male Tennis Players of All Time.

From 2009 to 2019, my job involved facilitating the discussions of up to 650 men and women, and trying to keep them in order. My job was to be fair and neutral during these discussions — although, of course, not everybody thought I was fair and neutral all the time.

I was once ranked as Britain’s top junior tennis player