Conservative MP Jesse Norman was a director at Barclays Bank. He also researched and taught philosophy at University College, London.
He is the author of numerous books and pamphlets, including Compassionate Conservatism, Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet and Adam Smith: What he Thought, and Why it Matters, which won a Parliamentary Book Award in 2018.
He was Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year and The House Backbencher of the Year in 2012. As Financial Secretary, he managed the Covid-19 furlough scheme.
He led the Tory rebellion against House of Lords reform, rebelled against the Government in opposition to military intervention in Syria and was one of the first to write a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson.
Norman’s father set up Bluebird Toys, and his mother Lady Anne Montagu, was the daughter of the 10th Earl of Sandwich. He lives in London and Hereford with his wife, the venture capitalist Dame Kate Bingham. They have three children.
What did you learn from your father?
My father [Sir Torquil Norman] is an astonishing human being and showed me what a vigorous, energetic person, who wants to help others, can do.
He always said that the secret to success in the toy business was having a mental age of seven and an eye for detail. He has always had massive flair, but also a practical side.
He set up Bluebird Toys in 1980, makers of the Big Yellow Teapot, the Big Red Fun Bus and the internationally successful Polly Pocket line of dolls.
He employed several hundred people and the company had a multi-million pound sales line. These toys were a formative part of my childhood and an incredible gift to millions of young people.
Did your father use his money for philanthropic ends?
When he’d finished building Bluebird, Dad sold his shares and, in 1996, reinvested £3m in the derelict Roundhouse arts centre in Chalk Farm, north London.
As founder and chairman, he then raised £27 million from public and private sources, and contributed almost another £4 million of his own funds, to restore the crumbling Victorian engine shed.
In the 1960s and 70s it had been used for experimental theatre and as a concert venue for the likes of The Doors and Cream.
It reopened in June 2006 and was soon the base for a major season by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It has also played host to lots of big-name concerts. Particular highlights for me were seeing Prince, Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Nile Rodgers and The Specials perform.
