Thirty two years in the Commons, never a minister, knighted in 2018 for "political and public service", and currently Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. The defining oddity of the career is its emptiness on the government side of the chamber.

Born 1953 into a political dynasty: his great uncle Douglas Clifton Brown was Speaker of the Commons from 1943 to 1951, and seven of his relatives have sat in Parliament. Royal Agricultural College, chartered surveyor (FRICS) by 1975. Elected for Cirencester and Tewkesbury in 1992 on a 16,058 majority, transferred to The Cotswolds in 1997, and moved to North Cotswolds in 2024 after his old seat was redrawn. The July 2024 result is the more interesting one. He held the new seat with a 3,357 majority on a 34.7% share, down from an opening of around 20,000 in 2019. The Lib Dems closed within 3.3k after a tactical squeeze that took back roughly half of that gap.

The shadow career has length but no government office. PPS to Douglas Hogg, opposition spokesman on transport, Shadow Minister for Local and Devolved Government in 2002, Assistant Chief Whip from 2005, Shadow Minister for Trade and Foreign Affairs, Shadow Minister for International Development. Conservative Party International Office Chairman from 2010 to 2015, a party role rather than a Crown one. When the Conservatives took office in May 2010 he was not in it, and he was not in any subsequent Conservative administration through 2024. Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours.

Treasurer of the 1922 Committee from at least October 2019. Stood for the Chair after July 2024 and lost to Bob Blackman by 28 votes. Elected Chair of the Public Accounts Committee on 11 September 2024 in the convention slot for an opposition MP, succeeding Dame Meg Hillier. The output since has been substantive. The February 2025 PAC report calling HS2 "a casebook example of how not to run a major project", warning of an £80bn programme cost and flagging the £100m "bat tunnel"; an early review of artificial intelligence in government in March 2025; warnings on local government audit in February 2025, when over 10% of 2023 to 2024 audits had no opinion and nearly half were disclaimed; a February 2026 report on the carer''s allowance overpayments scandal affecting 26,000 unpaid carers wrongly pursued. He has taken the PAC chair seriously.

The Telegraph included him in the May 2009 expenses series. He had "flipped" his second home designation between Gloucestershire and London, then bought a £2.75 million house. Three years of Additional Costs Allowance mortgage interest claims sit at the centre of the affair. The Conservative Party''s published list in June 2009 recorded only that he would forgo around £7,000 in future Second Homes Allowance rather than repay anything for past years. His local association said he had "acted within the rules".

A landed Norfolk family farmer with an arable and tourism partnership held since before 1992, five rental properties in London, FRICS, chair of the APPG on Shooting and Conservation, chair of Conservative Friends of the Chinese, deputy chair of the APPG China Group. In a 2015 CNN interview he said his family "has been doing business in China since the 1920s". The October 2019 conference incident saw him ejected from Manchester after a confrontation with security over access to the International Lounge; the party called it "totally unacceptable". Voted Leave in 2016, voted Aye on the Rwanda Bill at all stages, voted No on the Leadbeater assisted dying bill at second reading. A solid third of a century in Parliament, no attempt at a Cabinet box, and a PAC chairmanship now finally putting his eye for the public finances to use.