Ben Fletcher is the Conservative Party’s candidate to be the MP for Crewe and Nantwich
Ben grew up in an RAF family with his three siblings. As is normal for an armed forces family they moved around the UK and Europe living in several different bases over the years. It was a nomadic upbringing. After their time in the RAF, Ben’s dad worked at a school and his mum taught at a technical college.
Ben has a life-long love of history which he read for his degree at Durham University. After graduating Ben joined the consumer good company, Procter and Gamble, and spent 12 years working for them in finance in different locations in the UK and Switzerland. Since then, Ben has sat on the board of three major UK retailers. He was CFO of Boots before becoming Chief Executive of Boots Opticians where he developed and led a major initiative aimed at addressing issues with children’s eyesight. Whilst at Boots, he also led a programme to scale support for victims of rape and sexual assault.
Ben then joined the board of Clarks shoes where he led the turnaround of the business in Europe, before joining the board of The Very Group in January 2020 as Chief Finance and Transformation Officer. Ben has led the company’s response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis.
For 10 years Ben sat on the board of the British Retail Consortium, helping to ensure government addressed the concerns of the retail sector and took action to support healthy high streets as central to thriving communities. Ben has experience making the case for policy changes at the highest level of UK government.
Ben has had a long interest in education and early years serving as a school governor and university tutor. In 2016 Ben became a trustee of the National Literacy Trust and co-chairs the Business Leaders Literacy Council which works with businesses to improve literacy outcomes across the UK. In 2023 Ben become Chair of the Anthropy Early Years Network. Anthropy is the largest leadership movement in the UK and the early year network focuses on how to give children in the UK the best start in life.
Since 2019 Ben has been chair of the UK’s 11th oldest charity, the St John’s Foundation which was founded in 1174. St John’s provides alms-houses accommodation alongside its Foundation Fund, established in 2020, which works to improve educational outcomes.
Ben is married with two teenage children and lives in Cheshire.
Ben knows that public service is a privilege. He brings a long track record of accomplishment in both companies and charities which give him the skills needed to be an effective MP. He is motivated by his passion for improving educational outcome and early years life chances. In addition to this his campaign will focus on the issues that matter across all of Crewe and Nantwich: great town centres and high streets, sensible development, lower crime, and a stronger economy.