Born in 1958, Richard Graham studied Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford, before embarking on a varied career that has spanned Europe, Africa the Far East and included positions at John Swire & Sons, Cathay Pacific Airways and Baring Asset Management.
Before entering parliament, Richard joined the Foreign Office where he was posted to Kenya as Second, and later First, Secretary in the British High Commission. He progressed to become First Secretary in the British High Commission Nairobi and then British Trade Commissioner China, First Secretary British Embassy Beijing and HM Consul Macao. Following his extensive work abroad, Richard served as a councillor on the Cotswold District Council from 2003 to 2007, during which time he was selected as the parliamentary candidate for Gloucester at an open selection meeting. In 2010, Richard became Gloucester’s Member of Parliament when he defeated Labour’s Parmjit Dhanda.
As an MP, Richard has been involved with the Select Committee for Work and Pensions, as well as being appointed Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Indonesia in 2012. He also chairs the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Pensions, the Commonwealth, Indonesia, China and Regeneration through Innovation. After being re-elected to parliament in 2015 with an increased majority of 7500, Richard said, “I spent a lot of time in my first five years putting into practice the simple belief that an MP should work with everyone who wants to make Gloucester better, and that won't stop just because we have a small national majority. I'm convinced that we can go on surprising our county and country with what Gloucester can achieve over the next five years - keeping our city firmly on the up.”