The new Tory faces of the Con/Lib Dem coalition
Updated on 12 May 2010
A total of 97 new Conservative MPs have been collecting their Commons passes in the last few days. Who Knows Who looks at the new kids on the block.
As the Conservatives embark upon a new coalition era with the Liberal Democrats, a total of 97 new Tory MPs are finding their way around Westminster. So who are the fresh faces?
Millionaire Frank Zacharias Robin Goldsmith, better known as Zac Goldsmith, is no stranger to the media spotlight. The environmentalist and writer unseated Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer in Richmond Park.
Goldsmith has pledged to campaign on green policies including a threat to resign if Cameron does a U-turn on his promise to oppose a third runway at Heathrow.
He is editor-in-chief of The Ecologist magazine founded by his uncle Edward Goldsmith (known as Teddy). Zac credits Sir David Attenborough for his passion for the natural world.
His father is the late Sir James Goldsmith who founded the Referendum Party. His sister Jemima was married to Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan.
Like David Cameron, Goldsmith attended Eton but at 17 was expelled and sat his A-levels in a Cambridge "cramming course" before travelling in the Himalayas.
Rory Stewart is also a new face for the Tories. A former Army officer (and governor of a province in Iraq) he walked across Afghanistan shortly after the US invasion and wrote about it in his award winning book, The Places in Between.
The newly-elected MP for Penrith and the Border is another old Etonian who, like David Cameron, went to Oxford.
Stewart studied modern history and politics, philosophy and economics and during his university summer break he was a tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry. Interestingly, as a teenager he was a member of the Labour Party.
Nick Boles is joining Tory MPs for the first time after winning the seat of Grantham and Stamford.
He attended Magdalen College Oxford before winning a Kennedy scholarship to study at Harvard university.
Boles is a DIY tycoon and founded Longwall Holdings Ltd before being elected to Westminster City Council in 1998. In 2002 he set up the influential policy research institute Policy Exchange.
He once flat-shared with Michael Gove and Ivan Massow and can be counted as part of the so-called "Notting Hill set" with Ed Vaizey, David Cameron, George Osborne and Rachel Whetstone.
His sister is married to former Conservative MP Dudley Fishburn.
Boles took charge of Boris Johnson's London Mayoral transition team and more recently worked with Francis Maude to draw up Conservative policy
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Paul Maynard is the new Tory MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys.
A former adviser to Defence Secretary Liam Fox, he is a gifted speechwriter and has spoken candidly about living with cerebral palsy.
Another Oxford graduate, he is a proud northern who once said "in no way am I posh".
His own website proclaims: "We're a lot more down to earth up here in the north - and that's another quality that politicians need to learn to acquire".
Maynard supports his local non-league team Northwich Victoria and is fan of Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard.
Louise Bagshawe featured on Cameron's A-list and joins the Tory team after her win in Corby.
At the age of fourteen she joined the Conservatives after being inspired by Margaret Thatcher. She switched to Tony Blair's Labour party before returning to the Conservative fold.
Louise was named young poet of the year in 1989 at the age of 18 and swent on to study English at Christ Church College, Oxford. She co-founded the Oxonian Society with Joseph Pascal and HRH Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of Jordan.
Before politics, Louise worked at Sony Music and has written several "chick-lit" novels.
Other notable new MPs also entering the house of Commons for the first time include the first Bangladeshi MP, Labour's Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion).
