Kwarteng

Kwarteng cannot complain that his selection as a Tory candidate was reported with references to the "black Boris", since his own campaign team had enthusiastically propagated the label, his friendship with his fellow old Etonian featuring in his pitch to a "primary" selection meeting of 400.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng, a member of the transport select committee, believes in markets rather than integrated planning and demands road pricing on the eyecatching ground that tax-funded free roads represent the last gasp of "socialism".

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng's friends were not surprised when the college quiz quartet ended the series as national champions, another accolade for this habitual acquirer of school and university prizes.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng is billed to speak in a London debate this autumn against the motion that "Britain's former colonies should stop blaming the empire for their ills", the Tory MP taking what would traditionally be the left's line.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng is often said to be a very different type of Tory, though this is almost entirely due to his Ghanaian parentage.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng has been a confident Commons performer, though some thought him a little too eager to assist the whips with helpful questions.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng's father was educated in what was then called the Gold Coast, in a leafy Anglican school emulating the English public school, down to its Winchester-educated English headmaster, becoming an administrator of post-imperialism as a Commonwealth Secretariat economist.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng is economically "dry", but his politics are less clearly defined than others in the group, such as the independent-minded rightwinger Priti Patel or the formidable lawyer Dominic Raab.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Few of those to follow Disraeli into the House of Commons over the last century and a half can have taken that Victorian lesson to heart as strongly as Kwasi Kwarteng.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011

Kwarteng's interview at Trinity College, Cambridge, became the stuff of an oft-retold Eton school legend.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The rising star of politics and letters | profile 2011