Richard Graham

Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (born 4 April 1958) is a British politician and former diplomat who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gloucester since 2010.

He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1986; he was second and later first secretary at the British High Commission in Nairobi.

A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the British consul general in Macao from 1989 to 1992, prior to joining the banking sector.

The grandson of the cricketer and British Army officer Ogilvie Graham, Graham was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford where he was an exhibitioner in Modern History.

Whilst at Oxford University, he was a Cadet with the Oxford University Air Squadron.

Graham has played international squash and still plays cricket for Gloucester City Winget Cricket Club and the Gloucestershire Over 50s.

Graham was previously an airline manager, a diplomat and a pensions manager.

He started with John Swire and Sons and became general manager of Cathay Pacific Airways in France at 24 and in the Philippines at 26, whilst also vice-chairman of the board of Airline Representatives.

He was later the British Trade Commissioner in China, first secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing and HM's consul in Macao (1989–1992).

Graham joined Barings Bank as its Chief Representative China in 1993, before he became a director of Baring Asset Management in 1996.

He was previously a director of the charitable company Care for Children, which organises and trains foster parents for Chinese orphans.

Graham was elected as a Cotswold district councillor in 2003, becoming Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in 2006.

He unsuccessfully contested the Conservative Party Stroud Parliamentary nomination and the South West of England in the 2004 European elections.

Graham has lived and worked in ten countries and speaks eight languages: Indonesian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog, French, Malay, Swahili and English.

In the run up to the 2010 general election, Graham was criticised by the incumbent Gloucester Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda and Stroud MP David Drew for using members and supporters of the foxhound pack Heythrop Hunt to campaign and leaflet on his behalf.

Graham was elected with 39.9% of the vote and a majority of 2,420.

Following his election, Graham was a member of the Select Committee for Work and Pensions from May to November 2010, and since July 2015.

In June 2010, his first debate in Parliament regarding apprenticeships and their importance to Gloucester was cancelled after both he and the apprenticeship minister arrived late.

Graham later blamed a 'printer error'.

Graham also apologised to the Serjeant at Arms in 2010 after he shared a photo taken of him in the House of Commons Chamber when it was not sitting with the Gloucester Citizen which also accompanied an article in that newspaper on his maiden speech.

Photography is only permitted by the Speaker in exceptional circumstances.

In November 2012, Graham was appointed Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Indonesia.

In January 2013, Graham attracted criticism after suggesting to Gloucester Citizen that young women who wear high heels and short skirts put themselves at greater risk of rape.

He said, "If you are blind drunk and wearing those clothes how able are you to get away?"

Graham denied he was "victim blaming", saying that his comments were about "risk management".

Graham successfully campaigned for stronger dangerous driving sentencing laws in 2013 for those driving uninsured and under the influence of alcohol.

In June 2013, he was advised by the Information Commissioner's Office that he was in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU directive concerning Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 after sending political campaign emails to people who had contacted him on parliamentary business without first obtaining their permission.

In July 2015, he was banned from driving for six months at Stroud Magistrates Court after he was caught driving at 90 mph in a 70 mph speed limit on the A417 near Cirencester, in the Cotswolds on 14 December 2014.

He already had nine points on his licence at the time so faced automatic disqualification.

He was fined £525 with costs totalling £85 and a £53 victim surcharge.

In November 2014, a UK China Leadership Forum in China, led by Peter Mandelson and Ken Clarke, was cancelled at the last minute in sympathy with Graham after he was denied a visa to China following a Westminster debate on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong where he voiced his support for the protesters' human rights demands.

Consequently, he also had a road safety award withdrawn which he received from the charity Brake in January 2015.

In April 2015, Graham was ordered by a judge to remove tweets that discussed a murder trial in Gloucester after the defendant's barrister accused him of "a clear attempt to win votes by ingratiating himself with his electors."

The defendant was later found guilty of murder.

At the 2015 general election, Graham was re-elected with an increased vote share of 45.3% and an increased majority of 7,251.

He apologised for parking his official campaign van in the County Council building car park disabled parking bay for 30 minutes during a memorial ceremony for police after a "37 hour day" following the election.

In May 2015, Graham was mocked on Twitter after taking a joke by David Schneider about YouGov Polls at face value.

In November 2015, Graham was accused of quoting Joseph Goebbels in defending a new surveillance bill with the words "if you've nothing to hide you have nothing to fear".

Graham was the first MP to speak Indonesian in the Chamber, when he spoke during PMQs on 10 October 2018 on the natural disaster at Palu in Indonesia's Sulawesi islands: "Teman yang membantu saat dibutuhkan adalah teman sebenarnya, a friend in need is a friend indeed".

Graham has been described by the former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow on numerous occasions as a "noted Sinologist."