Damian Green, the shadow minister for immigration, was elected to Parliament at the 1997 election that saw Labour wipe out many sitting Conservative MPs.

Having unsuccessfully stood against Ken Livingstone in Brent East constituency five years earlier, he won the safe seat of Ashford, Kent and became a party spokesman for education the following year, in 1998.

Mr Green is a former financial journalist who once worked as business news editor for The Times as well as Channel 4 and BBC radio.

He spent 1999 to 2001 as an environment spokesman before entering the shadow cabinet as shadow education secretary in one of Iain Duncan Smith's first appointments in 2001.

He had a spell away from the front bench under Michael Howard, during which time he served on the treasury and home affairs select committees, before David Cameron handed him the immigration portfolio in December 2005 despite Mr Green’s support for David Davis during the leadership election.

He has claimed that “immigration has been out of control” in recent years.

Between 1992 and 1994, the former Oxford Union president worked in the Prime Minister's Policy Unit under John Major, for whom he had previously served as a speechwriter.

He then left Downing Street to run a public affairs consultancy before securing his own seat in the House of Commons in 1997.

His wife Alicia Collinson, a barrister, has published a book entitled “Politics for Partners: How to Live with a Politician”.

They have been married for 20 years and have two teenage daughters, Felicity and Verity.

Mr Green, 52, was born in Barry, Wales and educated at Reading School and Balliol College, Oxford where he secured a degree in PPE. He spent two years from 1980 as vice chairman of the National Association of Conservative Students (now Conservative Future).

He is Chairman of Parliamentary Mainstream, and was described by the News Statesman in 2000, during his first term as an MP, as “Pro-Europe pro-green and pro-life...the last of the Tory wets” as well as “a star to watch”. The website TheyWorkForYou.com lists him as someone who “hardly ever rebels” against his party in parliament.

He has increased his marjority at both the 2001 and 2005 elections, and he now has a cushion of over 13,000 votes.

Mr Green supported Ken Clarke in the 1997 leadership election and initially backed Michael Portillo in 2001, before returning to Clarke when Portillo was knocked out.

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