Soldier statesman whose August 2021 Afghanistan speech was the best Commons foreign affairs intervention in a decade, twice ran for leader and twice was beaten in the parliamentary ballots, and ended his Security Minister tenure unable to convince his own government to put China on the foreign influence registration scheme''s enhanced tier.

Born 1973; Theology at Bristol, MPhil Islamic Studies at Caius, Arabic learned in Yemen. Brief journalism at Beirut''s Daily Star. Territorial Army commission 2003, two operational tours: Iraq as an Arabic speaking intelligence officer attached to the Royal Marines, then Afghanistan in a mixed FCO and military intelligence capacity standing up the Afghan National Security Council. Military Assistant to General David Richards from 2010 to 2013 in Whitehall. Left regular service in 2013 as a Lieutenant Colonel; transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve in 2022. MBE in the 2010 New Year Honours for service with the Royal Marines in Helmand.

First elected in 2015 for Tonbridge and Malling, replacing Sir John Stanley. Boundary changes in 2024 renamed the seat Tonbridge. Held on 4 July 2024 with an 11,166 majority over Labour on a 40.8% share, down from 62.8% in 2019. Reform came fourth.

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 12 July 2017 to September 2022, the youngest holder of the post. The China Research Group he co founded with Neil O''Brien in April 2020 became the parliamentary engine for the China hawk turn. FAC reports under his chair covered Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the Magnitsky style sanctions regime, and the Afghan withdrawal review Missing in Action. The 18 August 2021 emergency debate speech was the political moment. Hansard records him saying that to "call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran, is shameful" and that he had "watched good men go into the earth". In broadcast interviews in the days before he had called it the biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez.

Ran for leader in 2022; eliminated in the third MPs'' ballot with 31 votes. Truss appointed him Minister of State for Security at the Home Office in September 2022; Sunak kept him. Two years'' work that included shepherding the National Security Act 2023 through Parliament, the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme it created, and the March 2024 attribution of cyber attacks on the Electoral Commission and parliamentarians to a Chinese state affiliated actor. He repeatedly pressed for China to be placed on the enhanced tier of the scheme; the Sunak government refused before the election.

Ran for leader again in 2024 and was eliminated in the third MPs'' ballot with 20 votes. Badenoch gave him no shadow role on her election in November 2024; he has been a backbencher since. The Conservative parliamentary commentariat respect him; the leadership never trusted him with the Foreign Office or Defence brief his CV most obviously points at.

Voted Aye on the Rwanda Bill at every stage as a minister and No on the Leadbeater assisted dying bill at second reading on 29 November 2024. An outside earnings declaration from his FAC period stands out: £25,000 from financier Michael Spencer in April 2022 to staff committee work, properly declared but unusually large. openDemocracy reported in May 2023 that an Electoral Commission letter to him in November 2022 about foreign donations loopholes went six months without reply. Post nominals remain MBE VR MP. The knighthood the press keeps assuming has not come.