Mark Harper with Michael Howard during a visit to the Forest of DeanA SWINDON Conservative is among the new MPs finding their way around Westminster this week.

But Mark Harper did not wrestle one of the Swindon seats from the Labour Party he had to move to the Forest of Dean to find political success.

Mark, 35, grew up in Swindon and even started his political career here but has now made it to Parliament before his colleagues in Swindon.

"I was always interested in public affairs but I was not actively involved in politics in my teens," said the former Ruskin Junior, Headlands and Swindon College pupil. "I joined the Conservative Party when I was 17 but never really did anything active before I went to university.

"I went to Oxford to study politics and economics then came back to Swindon in 1991. That is when I really got involved."

He stood for the Conservatives in local elections in Swindon a number of times but during what he describes as "our difficult years".

Despite coming within six votes of victory when he stood in Lawns in 1998, the chartered accountant was never elected to the council.

But in December 1999 he was selected to fight the Forest of Dean parliamentary constituency in the 2001 general election. "I moved to the area in May 2000 but I was still working in Swindon at Intel until 2003," said Mark, who is married to Margaret.

"I reduced Labour's majority in 2001 and they decided they wanted me to fight it again. I stopped working at Intel and got my own accountancy practice and it's been four years hard slog to the election."

Mark, who lives at Newham Bottom, took 40.9 per cent of the vote to win the seat from Labour and has been enjoying his first days in Parliament this week.

And he is focussing on finding his feet before he thinks about what his political future may hold. "I think at the moment I am just concentrating on getting myself organised as a good constituency MP," he said. "I will worry about the rest of it afterwards."

But in the busy days since last Thursday's election Mark has found time to look back and see how the Conservatives fared in his native Swindon.

"I was very pleased that we made considerable progress," he said, referring to the vastly reduced Labour majorities in South and North Swindon.

"I have got high hopes that at the next election I will be joined in Parliament by my Swindon colleagues."

Isabel Field