Ben Wallace

## Ben Wallace MP

Official portrait, 2015

**Robert Ben Lobban Wallace** (born 15 May 1970) is a British **Conservative** politician and former soldier who has served as Member of Parliament for Wyre and Preston North since 2005. Before becoming an MP, he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament for **North East Scotland**, and before that a soldier in the Scots Guards.

He is identified with economically and socially liberal policies, and calls himself a **One Nation Conservative.**

## Early life

Wallace was born on 15 May 1970 in **Farnborough**, in **Kent**. His father had also been a soldier and had fought in Malaya. Wallace was educated at **Millfield**, an independent school in Somerset. After leaving school, he was a ski instructor in Austria.

## Military career

After being interviewed by the Regular Commissions Board, he joined the Scots Guards in mid-1991. He served in **Germany**, **Cyprus** and **Northern** **Ireland**, where he was mentioned in dispatches for taking an entire IRA unit prisoner. He rapidly climbed the ranks until he became a captain, where he was sent to Paris to bring back the body of Diana, Princess of Wales.

In 1998 he left the active military and joined the reserves, ending his military career.

## Political career

### Scottish Parliament

Wallace became a Conservative Member of the **Scottish Parliament** in 1999, for North East Scotland, after leaving the army, saying that he had commanded soldiers from the most economically deprived regions, and wanted to change that. He stood down in 2003, as he sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England. Wallace was the shadow health spokesman during that time.

### British Parliament

Wallace was elected as Member of Parliament for the **Lancaster and Wyre** constituency at the **2005 general election**. He gained the seat from Labour with 22,266 votes and a majority of over 4,000. The constituency was abolished in 2010, and Wallace was elected for the new seat of Wyre and Preston North with 26,877 votes and a majority of nearly 16,000. The seat is now a safe Conservative one.

From 2005 to 2010, Wallace was a member of the **Scottish Affairs Select Committee** of the House of Commons. From 2006 to 2010 he was also the Shadow Minister of State for Scotland and was Chairman of the British–Iran Parliamentary Group from 2006 to 2014. in 2008, Wallace received the Campaigner of the Year title in the *Spectator*/Threadneedle Parliamentarian Awards, for his work promoting transparency of MPs' expenses.

Following his re-election to Parliament in 2010, Wallace was appointed as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the then-Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, and later **minister** **without portfolio** in the Cabinet Office, Kenneth Clarke. In 2012, Wallace turned down a position as a junior whip during the cabinet reshuffle. to remain Clarke's PPS.

He is now a junior backbencher.

## Political views

Wallace, as a former soldier, is a staunch Atlanticist and presumably a war hawk. He frequently visits military bases as part of his parliamentary duties, usually as part of an APPG.

He is identified with economically and socially liberal policies, and a typical One Nation MP, and he continues to work for the benefit of the poorest as he said when he entered politics. He has not had any notable diversions from the party line, but is prepared to do so in the public interest in defence or national security affairs.