I can remember listening to the radio for the result of one of the 1974 general elections, and feeling that it was terribly important that Ted Heath won. I would have only been 12 or 13 years old. I probably didn’t really understand the issues very much but I knew that it mattered to my father, who was struggling with a small business.
Much of my political drive comes from my background. My mother grew up on a council estate and left school at 15, and my father spent his childhood with various foster parents and in children’s homes. He left for the world of work at 14. I was lucky. I got a free place at a grammar school, and when that opportunity arrived I picked it up and ran with it as far and as fast as I possibly could.
When people ask me why I want to go into Parliament I explain that one of the reasons is that I would like to see a society in which more young people can benefit from the kind of educational opportunities that I had. At university I was President of the Oxford Union and the university Conservative association. I started to become actively involved in politics and engage in the battle of ideas. I had the great privilege of meeting lots of bright people from all walks of life. It was one of the times of my life that I cherish the most.
A couple of years after I left I decided to try and encourage bright, young graduates to go into industry and manufacturing, rather than areas like the city. I thought the best way of doing this was to organise an exhibition of what young people in industry were doing. I persuaded about a third of the UK’s largest 50 industrial companies to showcase what young people were doing in their companies. I was interviewed on the Today Programme, because my event coincided with the 1987 stock market crash. Sir John Banham, the then director general of the CBI, opened my show and the event reached around nine million people nationally. So it was kind of by accident that I ended up in the exhibition business. Twenty odd years later I had grown a company, based in the USA as well as here.
More recently I decided to become politically involved again. By that, I mean to say that I thought I had enough life experience to have something to contribute. I think there should be more MPs with real hands-on business experience, especially entrepreneurial experience, the kind that finds creative solutions to difficult problems.
I grew up in the countryside and feel very connected to it. I see a lot of my role as trying to protect what we have in Devon: our rural communities, our farming, that sense of togetherness that seems to be disappearing from much of our country. In rural areas you still find it and it needs to be protected and nurtured as something very special. Central Devon is the only seat in the country which has no conurbation above 10,000. My largest town is 7,000. It’s a highly rural constituency where agriculture matters. My part of Devon is relatively low-wage and tourism is important. The coming year or so could be hard.

When it comes to my approach as a candidate, I believe in listening. In the last two-and-a-half years I have chatted to over 10,000 people on their doorsteps. I am very much a pavement politician in that sense. Anyone who seeks the privilege of serving in Parliament should expect to have to work extremely hard to get there. I don’t have much time for patrician politics; thankfully those days are pretty much over.
My interest outside of politics revolves around my family. We’ve just had another little daughter, and so that keeps me busy. Without a very understanding partner, it must be very difficult to be a PPC. It’s one of those pursuits that is kind of endless. To do it well, you have to give it 110 per cent, and at the end of the day it’s your partner who carries much of the weight. I owe my family a great deal, especially my wife Michelle. Win or lose, we’ll still have each other.