Mark MacGregor

Mark MacGregor (born 25 February 1961) is a British Conservative Party politician and entrepreneur. He fought several parliamentary elections for the party, became chief executive of Conservative Central Office from 2002 to 2003 and then ran Steve Norris' campaign to become Mayor of London in 2004. He has run various businesses, including a communications company, Marketforce Communications Ltd, an events firm and a cloud technology company, Connect Support Services Ltd. He was appointed Deputy Director of Policy Exchange in early 2013

MacGregor was born in 1961. He was educated at Emanuel School in London and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where he graduated with a degree in Economics and Modern History. He was previously the National Chairman of the Conservative Students, where he was associated with the libertarian faction.

In October 2002, MacGregor accepted undisclosed libel damages and a public apology at the High Court over allegations in Punch magazine. Mr Justice Eady was told that MacGregor had never been chairman or a member of the Young Monday Club as had been falsely claimed by the magazine. Mr MacGregor also successfully sued the Daily Mail for libel over similar allegations related to his period as Chairman of the FCS.

Worked for Michael Forsyth Ltd, and then became the founder Director of Marketforce Communications, his own PR agency and conference company. From 2007, he has been chief executive of cloud and IT service company Connect Support Services

In 1997, MacGregor contested the ultra-safe Labour seat of West Ham for the Conservatives. Labour's Tony Banks got 24,531 votes (72.9%), MacGregor 5,037 (15.0).

MacGregor contested the South Thanet constituency for the first time in 2001. On that occasion Stephen Ladyman polled 18,002 votes for Labour (45.7%) while MacGregor got 16,210 for the Conservatives (41.1%). He stood once again in the 2005 general election, when he failed by 664 votes to defeat Ladyman, and BBC suggests the 2,079 votes gained by the UK Independence Party candidate, Nigel Farage, is likely to have cost MacGregor the seat.

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