The Conservatives are proud to announce that Oliver Cooper has been elected the new National Chair of Conservative Future.
Oliver Cooper, 26, of Hampstead, was last week elected chairman of Conservative Future, which comprises all Conservative members under the age of 30.
The trainee lawyer has lived in Camden for the last seven years, having settled in the borough while studying for an economics degree at University College London (UCL).
Mr Cooper, who begins a training contract with a law firm specialising in intellectual property in September, grew up with parents 'strongly on the left of the spectrum' and said becoming a Conservative was an 'act of teenage rebellion'.
He said, "Visit Southall or Harrow and you'll see people whose families came to this country without a penny to their name taking control of their lives by setting up their own businesses and working hard for their family and their future. Growing up there really showed me that free markets and entrepreneurship is the best way to get on in life: especially for the worst-off."
A party member since the age of 18, Mr Cooper, who worked as a journalist at The Sun for a year after leaving university, said supporting the Conservatives these days 'goes against the grain' of left-wing educational and media establishment, as well as the Labour government while his generation were growing up.
As Conservative Future chairman he hopes to broaden the appeal of the party to people of his generation and increase membership.
But it is in Camden that he is most keen to bring his message, targeting a seat as one of the borough's councillors in the next council elections. "I'd love to represent the local area – that is my ambition," he said.