Brooks (Phillip Victor) NEWMARK Conservative BRAINTREE '05

Brooks (Phillip Victor) NEWMARK Conservative BRAINTREE '05-

Majority: 3,893 (7.3%) over Labour 6-way Description: A large central Essex constituency including the fast-growing towns of Braintree and Witham and many commuting villages, including picturesque Finchingfield plus small medieval wool towns; it was long Conservative until narrowly captured by Labour in the '97 and '01 landslides; retaken by a Conservative in '05, proposed boundary changes make it likely to remain Conservative; Position: Co-Chairman, Women2Win '05-; ex: Chairman, Southwark & Bermondsey Conservative Association '90- 93; Outlook: A thoughtful, American-born Rightwing venture capitalist and former merchant banker succeeding at his second attempt in Labour's second most marginal seat; a strong backer of more women in the Commons; "A high- flier, but he needs to get rid of his mid-Atlantic accent" (Conservative Party insider); "his vigorous determination [in the '01 campaign] was to appeal to moderate Labour voters while anchored in party bedrock was reminiscent of the tactics used by Labour in '97 and '01 and Bush in '00" (Ben Macintyre, TIMES); describing himself as a "progressive modern Conservative", he favours lower taxes, deregulation and a restored link between earnings and pensions; he has insisted that "we need to pursue far more of a social agenda, and talk more about the vulnerable in society; I should be spending 90% of my energies on the 10% who are the most vulnerable, and 10% of my energies on those who can, frankly, look after themselves"; "although, as a student I was heavily influenced by the writings of Friedman, Hayek and Keith Joseph, it was my first year economics professor at Harvard, J K Galbraith, who taught me that `politics is not the art of the possible...it often consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpallatable'"; locally he has campaigned against expanding Stansted airport, waste incineration and primary school closures; History: He joined the Young Conservatives at 16 in Bedford '74; he was Acting Agent for Southwark & Bermondsey in the general election May '92; he contested a Southwark Borough Council by-election '95; he fought hopeless Newcastle-on-Tyne Central May '97; he contested hyper-marginal Braintree, cutting the Labour majority to 358, June '01; he was readopted for Braintree Sep '02; he co-endorsed Michael Howard as Iain Duncan Smith's successor as Tory Leader Nov '03; at the party conference, he backed the abolition of Inheritance Tax Oct '04; he recaptured Braintree on a 4% pro-Tory swing by a majority of 3,893, May '05; he opposed Michael Howard's decision to quit as Leader May '05; in his Maiden he urged a rebate for pensioners on their council tax bills, a return to pensions linked to earnings, less Government intervention, more autonomy for doctors and teachers; he also warned against driving multinationals offshore by new measures against tax avoidance June '05; he baited PM Blair with sardonic questions on means-testing pensions June '05; he warned against over-taxation of real estate investment trusts June '05; he sought effective consumer protection for National Savings investors June '05; he urged a reduction of the burden on businesses of regulatory impact assessments July '05; he opposed more form-filling for inheritance tax assessment July '05; he opposed the Sustainable Development Commission's proposal to increase vehicle excise duty for an average family car to over £900, July '05; he made a two-day freebie visit to Washington for meetings at the State Department, National Security Council, the White House and Congress Sep '05; he urged higher home insulation standards Oct '05; he backed Dr Liam Fox for Tory Leader Oct '05; he opposed "any re-banding [of council tax] at any time" as very damaging to "asset-rich" but "cash-poor" pensioners Nov '05; he co-urged women candidates be allocated 50% of the winnable seats Nov '05; he endorsed Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz's Climate Change and Sustainable Energy

Bill as "a progressive and sensible response to climate change" Nov '05; as Co-Chairman of Women2Win, he urged the Conservatives become "more representative" by adopting more women for winnable seats Dec '05; Born: 8 MAY 1958 , USA Family: Son, of late Howard Newmark, lawyer and former US Army officer, and Gilda (Rames, now Gourlay); "I moved to Braintree from America when I was nine years old; the first US airfield in the UK during the second World War was at Andrews Field in Braintree; my father who was an officer in the US armed forces at that time, and subsequently in the US State Department, spent a considerable amount of time in Britain, and was a strong Anglophile; so it was not surprising...that following his death when I was six, my mother married an Englishman and moved to Britain"; "I was brought up on a working farm in the Chiltern Hills, near High Wycombe"; m '85 Lucy (Keegan), children's book illustrator and a Somerset-born daugher of DAILY TELEGRAPH Defence Correspondent Sir John Keegan; 4s: Benjamin '88, Sam '90, Max '92, Zachary '97; 1d: Lily '94; Education: Caldicott Preparatory School, Farnham Royal, Bucks; Bedford School; Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass (BA in History '80); Worcester College, Oxford (post-graduate Politics research '80-82); Harvard Business School (MBA in Finance '84); Occupation: Director: Telesis Management Ltd (advice on investment opportunities; also a shareholder) '05-; ex: Partner, Apollo Management ("one of the world's leading venture capital firms" (BN) '98-05; Principal, Stellican Ltd '93-98; Director, Newmark Brothers Ltd (his own firm as "a company doctor" (BN)) '88-93; Vice President, Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc (the Wall Street merchant bank) '84-87; with Ingleram Investments ("the family businesss" (BN) involved in commodity trading and an iron foundry in Hull); Traits: Dark retreating hair; high forehead; bushy eyebrows; bags under eyes; London Marathon runner; enthusiast for MGs and field sports, "occasionally"; Newcastle United fan; Jewish; Address: House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA; Avenue Lodge, The Avenue, Witham, Essex CM8 2DL; Telephone: 0207 219 8080 (H of C); 01376 512386;