Mark Francois

Mark Gino Francois (born August 14, 1965) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Rayleigh. He is currently Shadow Paymaster General.

Mark Francois was born in Islington, London and was educated at the Nicholas Comprehensive School in Basildon, Essex and at the University of Bristol where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1986, he was also the chairman of the university's Conservative Association. He completed his studies at King's College London where he earned a master's degree in war studies in 1987.

On leaving university he became a management trainee with Lloyds Bank, in 1988 he joined lobbying company Market Access International, leaving as a director in 1996 to set up his own lobbying firm Francois Associates. For a time he served on the staff of the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

He was elected as a councillor to the Basildon Borough Council for four years from 1991. He stood for Brent East during the 1997 General Election, and lost to Ken Livingstone (who later became the Mayor of London). Following the death of Alan Clark in 1999, he narrowly lost out to Michael Portillo in the selection for the by-election. On the retirement of Dr. Michael Clark at the 2001 General Election he was selected to fight the safe Tory seat of Rayleigh. Francois held the seat comfortably with a majority of 8,290 and remains the MP. He made his maiden speech on July 4, 2001.[1]

In parliament he served as a member of the environmental audit select committee for the duration of his first parliament. He was promoted to become an Opposition Whip in 2003 by Michael Howard, and since September 2004, he has been Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs in the Treasury team.

He served as an officer the Territorial Army, including with the local Royal Anglian Regiment. He has been married to Karen Thomas since 2000 and they live in Rayleigh. He has been a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies since 1999.