As a pupil at his local comprehensive in the South Wales Valleys, David Simmonds’ decision to join the Tory party at the age of 17 singled him out as a nonconformist among his classmates. "It was definitely not approved of in that part of the world," he says smiling. "So I was something of a teenage rebel."
But it was this dissent that offered him an extra-curricular pursuit at university and eventually a diversion from his career in banking.
"I moved to London to start my career as a trainee financial adviser and became involved in Hillingdon Council, which is where I happened to land," he explains. "They asked me whether I was interested in standing for council and I was elected in 1998 at the age of 22."
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