Despite hitting the headlines in recent weeks, when Mark Spencer was appointed as Boris Johnson’s chief whip in 2019 he was described as a relative unknown outside Westminster. The website ConservativeHome said he had “contrived to remain one of the least-known major players” in SW1.
The exception may have been in his constituency of Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, where his family have lived for four generations. Before his election as an MP in 2010, Spencer joined the family farm business after qualifying at Shuttleworth Agricultural College in Bedfordshire.
