Some people might question whether taking a massive salary cut is a good career move, but Mark Garnier, MP and member of the UK Government’s influential Treasury Committee, did just that and does not regret forgoing a single penny. 

Garnier entered Parliament in 2010 as the Conservative member for Wyre Forest in the West Midlands, after 24 years of working in investment banking and hedge fund management. “I’m not in the same financial league now, but in terms of enjoyment I’ve never been happier. I love every minute of it,” he says.

Garnier joined the Treasury Committee immediately on entering Parliament and that, plus his additional roles as trade envoy, member of the Finance Committee and the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, means he has had a full timetable so far. Inquiries into HSBC’s Swiss private bank, High Speed Rail 2, Scottish Devolution, the economic impact of Brexit and the failures of HBOS and RBS are just some of the matters with which he has been involved.

A chance to learn  “I realise now that I was massively out of touch when I was a banker,” says Garnier. “I am learning all the time. Everybody has a story to tell, and as an MP, you have a chance to [hear] it.”

Garnier lived in London as a child, attending Dulwich Prep before finishing his education at Charterhouse. Rather than going to university, he spent a year doing “slightly odd jobs”, including working as a mechanic for Space Invaders arcade machines. He initially thought working in an office would be dreadful, but this period of work experience opened his eyes to the possibility that it could actually be fun. “When I was at school I wanted to be an engineer, but my maths wasn’t good enough,” he says. “So what do you do? Become an investment banker instead!”

He started in the gilts market, and with the constant mergers that took place around the Big Bang, found himself working for brokerage firm W I Carr, soon transferring to its South East Asian desk. This early specialisation, and witnessing the development of China at first hand – “200 years of industrial revolution crammed into 25 years” – served him well. 

Garnier became a managing director in his very next job, spending six years setting up the London headquarters of South China Securities (UK), and a spell running the Asian equity and equity derivative division of Daiwa Securities Europe. He then switched to hedge fund management and establishing the principle-trading model for the hedge fund business he co-founded – CGR Capital.

Something significantly different The move to hedge funds enabled Garnier, his wife Caroline and their young children to move out of London to the Forest of Dean and enter local politics. “My father, who was not a politician but active in the community, died in 2000 and I started doing an audit of what I’d achieved in my own life. I had spent 17 years as an investment banker before moving into hedge fund management, and I wanted to try something significantly different,” he says.

Garnier was selected as the Conservative candidate for Wyre Forest in 2004. He notes he was a candidate for his constituency for longer – six and a half years – than he has been its MP. This waiting time enabled him to get to know the area well and to develop a real fondness for it. 

The feeling is obviously mutual: he returned to Parliament in 2015 with a massive 26% majority and an 8.4% increase in his share of the votes. He has developed a reputation for using his City experience to champion businesses in the constituency and improve the local economy. Since he became an MP for Wyre Forest, the percentage of people claiming unemployment benefits in the area has dropped from 3.8% to 1.4%. During the same period, the percentage of those claiming unemployment benefits in the UK as a whole has fallen from 3.7% to 1.9% according to the Office for National Statistics. However, the area has lower-than-average wages, and one of Garnier’s aims is to introduce more training within the constituency, on the assumption that better trained employees attract better employers, and better employers pay better wages.

Pulling it all together 
Garnier also takes an active interest in financial education and the provision of personal finances. He believes the issues facing the current working generation – including long-term low interest rates, increasing longevity and the resulting need for bigger retirement savings and the high cost of housing – mean that availability of financial advice will be one of the biggest issues facing the financial services industry and the general public. “Lifetime ISAs, auto enrolment, pension freedom … There are some good solutions coming forward, but the financial services industry has to pull this all together,” he says.  

Robo-advice provided by automated programmes has been hailed by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Treasury’s joint Financial Advice Market Review as having a major role to play in driving down costs and thereby making advice accessible to those with lower income and amounts of capital. But Garnier does not believe this will work for everyone. “You need trusted, human advisors to encourage non-savers to sit down and address their finances,” he says.

The CV

2016: Appointed Trade Envoy to Thailand, Burma and Brunei

2010 to date: Elected Conservative MP for Wyre Forest. Sits on Treasury Select Committee and Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards

2008 to 2012: Senior Partner at Severn Capital

2003 to 2007: Elected District Councillor of Forest of Dean District Council 

1999 to 2005: Independent hedge fund manager

1989 to 1995: Managing Director at South China Securities. 

1986: Moves to the South East Asian desk at brokerage firm WI Carr

1981: Joins the London Stock Exchange as a junior clerk on the Gilts Markets


He is also concerned at the rapid increase in household borrowing, accompanied by increasing numbers of zero-interest credit card deals and the reintroduction of 100% mortgages – all reminiscent of the run up to the last financial crisis. “The economy is asking the consumer to do a lot of different things, especially to spend, and household [finances] are becoming more stressed again,” he says. “But there is one fantastically big difference this time – the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee. It’s there to take the punch bowl away when the party gets too heated.”

Being there for the community Garnier spends Monday to Wednesday, and often Thursday in Parliament and working on Treasury committee work. Friday and Saturday are spent on constituency business, but he tries to keep Sunday free for his family. He has three children – two boys and a girl all aged under 15 – and he says perhaps his one regret about becoming an MP is that he has so little free time to spend with them.

“Nobody is perfect. I can be bad tempered and tetchy, and get dragged off to do other things when I should be looking after my family. While I’m in London, Caroline is effectively a single parent.

“But the people that I represent [in Wyre Forest] only get one MP. It’s important that you are there for them. I take my job seriously.”