Will Stone is the Labour MP for Swindon North, born in the town around 1980 and raised in Pinehurst, schooled at Headlands School and Swindon College, with no university education. He served as a rifleman in the 1st Battalion, The Rifles, and before his election owned and ran 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Swindon, a martial arts gym where he was head instructor, a more specific and distinctive profile than "served in the Army, ran a personal training business". Born, raised, schooled and returned to the constituency he represents, his roots there are genuine.

His signature campaign is named for a constituent. Harry Parker was a 14-year-old killed in 2022 after being hit on Akers Way by an unlicensed, uninsured driver who failed to stop and avoided prosecution. Stone introduced the Harry Parker Bill as a Ten Minute Rule Bill seeking stricter penalties for unlicensed drivers and tougher laws on failing to stop, and tabled two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, though neither has yet become law.

He has pushed hard on defence manufacturing. Four drone makers, including Tekever, Munin Dynamics and Flyby, have announced a Swindon presence, and he is applying for a Defence Technical Excellence College in the town to train people for defence-industry careers, having also asked the government to consider Panettoni Park for science and technology funding. He was elected to Swindon Borough Council for Rodbourne Cheney in 2022, sits on the Backbench Business Committee, and has voted in 420 divisions with no whipped rebellions.

Stone's strengths include being born and raised in Swindon, a local state-school education, service in the Rifles, ownership of a martial arts gym, the Harry Parker Bill giving him a named legislative campaign, the four drone manufacturers arriving in Swindon, the Defence Technical Excellence College application, and the Backbench Business Committee. His weaknesses include the Harry Parker Bill not yet progressing, no select committee beyond Backbench Business, no ministerial office, no university education (an asset in Pinehurst, a limitation in Westminster), and the structural risk that Swindon North, Conservative as recently as 2010, could swing back. At 44, with the Rifles background, the gym, the Harry Parker campaign and the drone cluster, he has one of the most locally specific profiles in the 2024 intake. Whether the Defence Technical Excellence College materialises, the Harry Parker Bill becomes law, and the drone manufacturers create Swindon jobs will determine whether the grit converts to results.