Beholden to no-one

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John Glen on his rise to the top of the Conservative Research Department and why he thinks there is currently no place for a "white, Christian, married bloke from the Home Counties" in David Cameron's top team.

I grew up in Wiltshire, where my father ran a nursery business and my mother was a hairdresser. My dad talked a lot about politics when I was growing up. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was probably a frustrated politician who didn’t have the ambition to go down that route. But politics became a serious pursuit for me, and I suppose I was quite a studious child.

I was the candidate in the school’s mock election in 1992, and I remember meeting John Major in Bath on my 18th birthday. At university I got involved in the student welfare side of things, and was the junior common room president of my college. After graduating I worked for Gary Streeter [Plymouth Sutton; South West Devon] and Michael Bates [Langbaurgh 1992-97]. With Gary I was doing the odd bit of policy work, and with Michael we were trying to help him keep his seat in Middlesbrough. They both remain close friends, and Michael came to my wedding.

After leaving Parliament I joined Accenture. On my first day there I met Mark Spelman, who is Caroline’s husband. I had become good friends with her intern while I was working at Westminster, so it all interwove together.

My first real break came in September 2000 when I was selected to fight Plymouth Devonport. Then Mark Spelman told me that there was an opportunity to be seconded as head of policy to William Hague. Instead I became head of the political section, a post which involved briefing the shadow cabinet for question time. I was also a junior part of the team which prepared William for PMQs.

It was a great apprenticeship for me. I was a 26-year-old guy from a straightforward background in Wiltshire, and I wasn’t really somebody who knew about this class where everyone seemed to have extreme confidence. George Osborne is three or four years older than me, yet he was stating very clearly what should and shouldn’t happen. I just did my bit and made my contribution as best as I could.

I never thought that I would win Plymouth Devonport in 2001, but I gave it what I could and the result was respectable. I went back to Accenture after the 2001 election and also did an MBA in Cambridge for a year. In late 2003 I met Greg Clark, who was running the Conservative Research Department, and he asked if I would like to become his deputy. I don’t think Maurice Saatchi was too impressed. He was looking for a bigger name, but Greg stuck to his ground and I was appointed as a deputy director.

However, Maurice Saatchi had really wanted to appoint George Bridges. Maurice gets what he wants, and eventually he pushed Greg aside. I retained my role though, and worked as George’s understudy, running the war room during the general election campaign in 2005. Michael Howard was very exacting to work for, but he was very fair and I liked him. George left after the election, and Michael appointed me director of the Conservative Research Department. I was the second-youngest director after Chris Patten, and I felt very proud. I put together a really good team, and I was thrilled that David Cameron won.

Then things started to go wrong in terms of my career at central office. On the day that David Cameron was elected, Francis Maude told me that George Bridges was coming back. He’d only been gone for six months, but he couldn’t resist. I suspected that my days would be numbered, and in my early encounters with Steve Hilton and members of David Cameron’s office I sensed a lack of esteem for what I could bring to the table. They thought I was just ‘the bloke that did all the running around for Michael Howard’, and probably didn’t ‘get’ the new team’s zeal for modernisation.

Francis Maude then abolished the Research Department and decided that all the researchers should go into the offices of shadow cabinet members. I disputed the decision, but Francis surrounded himself with a number of people from the City who were determined to cut costs.

It was very short-sighted, and lacked an understanding of the need to have a core capacity of thinking people who are able to specialise in different policy areas. I allowed myself a bit of a smile when that decision was reversed the following summer. They realised that in an imminent election scenario they didn’t have anybody there to do any work, as they were all in little fiefdoms.

I had another blow when I wasn’t added to the first round of A-list candidates. It was a tough time, but in politics you have to take the rough with the smooth. I wanted to be an MP, so there was no point in falling out with anyone.

I returned to Accenture for nearly four years, and had an interesting role there, taking the CEO and the senior team to Davos for the World Economic Forum and then becoming a personal advisor to Mark Spelman.

In the summer of 2008 I was getting married, and my wife-to-be lived in Henley. I was now on the A-list, but after various discussions David Cameron vetoed me from standing in the Henley by-election – caused by Boris Johnson standing for mayor of London – and told me it had to be one of the three local councillors. I don’t understand that decision, because the previous week the Lib Dems had selected somebody from Plymouth. My wife was in tears. “I’m sure they know what’s going on,” I told her. To his immense credit, David Cameron later apologised for what happened.

In 2009 I was told that they really wanted to put things right, but then the rules changed and the doors were opened to all new candidates. That fitted in with the mood of the time, but was a bit disconcerting to some of us ‘old-timers’. I went for several seats within a reasonable proximity to where I was living, and didn’t get interviewed in any of them. Eventually I got my opportunity in Salisbury, which is about 35 miles from where I grew up. I had a big open primary and I nearly won it on the first ballot. I was thrilled. I was chosen on January 31, and then I was elected on May 6.

It had been a long journey, but I have a very strong Christian faith which helps me look at things in a different perspective. Going through all those disappointments has been helpful to me in terms of my character. I’ve now got an opportunity in Salisbury, and it was meant to be – my grandfather was a constable in Salisbury City Police during the war.

Just a month after my election I was elected onto the defence select committee, which gives me a great opportunity to scrutinise and understand what’s going on. One of the frustrations of being a backbench MP is that you are very much an outsider. We don’t have magic wands as MPs. We have influence and use it as wisely as we can, but we don’t have it in as much quantity as many of our constituents believe.

Tim Montgomerie called me a “big hitter”. Well, he is a close friend and, 12 years ago, was my flatmate. He’s also a constituent of mine in Salisbury. I don’t anticipate any early calls to government. I’m a white, Christian, married bloke from the Home Counties, so I probably don’t fit the description of what the leadership wants at the moment. But I waited ten-and-a-half years to get here, so I hope it won’t be as long as that before I’m asked to do something. I’ll just carry on doing my best.

What is important is that you don’t lose your soul along the way. I’d rather be a damn good constituency MP and be known to speak the truth than someone who has got on the ladder too soon and is not experienced or able enough to deal with the pressure. I’ve noticed somemcolleagues out to make a name for themselves, but I play amlong game. I’m 36, and I could be here for a while. There’s no point racing around and annoying everyone. I’d rather get to know the ropes of this place in the context of a 30- year career, and I’m sure my constituents expect me to be around a lot at the moment.

Politics is a lifestyle rather than a job, but it’s very difficult to explain that to Emma when I’m sneaking off for 15 minutes to send a few work emails at 11pm. When I’m at home I try and devote all of my free time to my two step children, William and Emily. Watching X-Factor with William is just as important to me as pursuing my own interests at this stage.