John was the longest-serving Prime Ministerial Anti-Corruption Champion (2017-2022), the only one to serve two different Prime Ministers (Theresa May and Boris Johnson) and the only one to resign from the role on principle too.

He served as MP for Weston-super-Mare from 2005 to 2024. He was Tourism & Heritage Minister at the time of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. He wrote and implemented the Government’s Tourism Strategy, and began the process of turning English Heritage’s properties (Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel and others) into a second National Trust; abolished red tape on live entertainment; and sold the Tote bookmaker.

John was brought back into Government as a Government Whip. He then served as Constitution Minister for David Cameron and later as Northern Ireland Minister for Theresa May too.

Beyond politics, John ran Cambridge University’s Charity Appeal (raising what was then a record amount of money) and later became a successful businessman working for blue chip firms including JPMorgan, McKinsey, Thompson publishing and Pearson PLC, as well as leading two entrepreneurial start-ups in educational software and credit data publishing.