Will Douglas

**William Alexander Duncan Douglas** (born 18th October 1978) is a British Politician that served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2015 to 2017. Mr. Douglas also served as MP for Chelmsford, Basildon and South Essex between 2005 and 2018. He now resides in his family home in Basildon.

Will Douglas was born in Welwyn Garden City in 1978 as the son of a Civil Servant and a School Teacher. After attending the independent school, St Cecilia's in St Albans, he went on to study PPE at Cambridge before becoming a member of the Welwyn Hatfield Conservative Party. Involving himself in local politics for many years, Mr. Douglas served as a Welwyn Hatfield Councillor before shifting his career to a national level. Having now moved to Basildon in 1997 and working as a parliamentary aide alongside David Cameron, Mr. Douglas became familiar with parliamentary practices and chose to stand as a parliamentary candidate for his local constituency of Chemlsford, Basildon and South Essex. Failing to contest the seat in 2001, Mr. Douglas was later selected as the Conservative Party Candidate for the said constituency. In 2005 he was elected as the Member of Parliament.

After the shock resignation of David Cameron as Conservative Party Leader in 2015, Mr. Douglas stood for the leadership and, even with Mr. Cameron's blessing, was seen for the most part as an outsider. After a first round of balloting however, it was clear to see that with the help of his campaign manager, Ryan Speed (later Chief Whip) he was seen by the majority of the party as Cameron's successor. With this ground force of support, the party was on good footing for the 2015 General Election.

Standing on a platform of uniting Britain after division caused by austerity, Mr. Douglas faught a competitive campaign during the 2015 election, winning the Conservatives an overall majority not seen since 1992. Notable members of his cabinet included Michael Hawk, Jack Myatt, Ryan Speed, Sebastian Kurz, Casey Chambers, Beatrice Evans, Henry Windsor and Ed Mountbatten.

After serving barely a year in office however, Mr. Douglas was forced to resign due to health reasons in 2017. Following this shock resignation, Jack Myatt (then Home Secretary) was promptly elected as Leader of the Conservative Party and was instated as Prime Minister.

Mr. Douglas promptly removed himself from national politics, instead focusing on local issues in his constituency seat, in which he still resides. His most recent media appearance was on the night of the 2017 General Election in which he said the following about the Conservative Campaign and the Conservative Leader, Sebastian Kurz:

*"I think Seb has run a good campaign. A particular highlight for me was appearance on the BBC debate; a fantastic performance destroying Labour's representative. However, this new leader has not yet been tested and in the eyes of the public, he may come across as inexperienced, even though he has served many major cabinet roles. They however have my best and as we all know, exit polls are never truly correct."*

*"Obviously it's too close to call at this current stage. With the result of the referendum being fresh in our minds with such a convincing win for Leave, the exit poll may underestimate how much leave voters will have turned out for one of their key representatives during the campaign. Everyone will have the opportunity to form a Government. Luckily, after 2010 I never had to go through such trials to kiss the Queen's hand however we may not have a Government for some time after the results are confirmed. We could be in for a very, very long night indeed."*