The seemingly neverending rise of Ben Wallace through Britain’s political ranks, and in popularity, has been little short of amazing for those who first clapped eyes on him at the opening of the new Scottish Parliament in 1999.
As we watched him handle an international press conference in Moscow on Friday, having told his opposite number that “tragic consequences” would result if Russia invaded Ukraine, it was difficult to recall that this was the same cocky ex-Army captain who had precious little to be cocky about 23 years ago.
After all, this proud and decorated ex-Scots Guards officer couldn’t even beat a former major in the Education Corps to win the West Aberdeen constituency in the election to Holyrood, having to make do with a regional “list” seat; something that grated with young Wallace for years.
People like me can remember meeting him for the first time, wearing his Wallace tartan kilt at the top of the Royal Mile, as we waited for the Queen to arrive for the pomp and circumstance of the new Parliament’s official opening.
“Captain Fantastic”, a colleague nicknamed him, as much for his engaging personality as for his confidence in his own abilities to make it to the top. We could almost smell his ambition to make a success of his new political career. But the levelled-down Scottish Parliament, where everyone was considered equal and where the Tories an almost extinct breed, was nowhere for him to linger long.
Going south to reach sky high
And linger he didn’t. After two parliamentary sessions, he gave up Holyrood and headed south, seeking the green benches of Westminster. After two years working in the defence industry, he won a seat in Lancashire, an area which he still represents.
He took time to climb the Commons greasy pole, refusing and then accepting a job as a whip, learning the political game as parliamentary private secretary to a “master” – in Lord Clarke of Nottingham, the former Chancellor and Home Secretary – before eventually reaching junior ministerial rank.
This was first of all in Northern Ireland, where he’d previously served with the Scots Guards during the Troubles and where he had been “mentioned in despatches”, then subsequently in 2016 as security minister in the Home Office.
Although he supported Britain remaining in the European Union, he has always been a close ally of Boris Johnson, who promoted him as Defence Secretary in 2019.
This was very much “to the manner born” for an ex-soldier such as Mr Wallace, and his handling of the ever-escalating risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen his stock rise not only with Tory MPs, but also with opposition parties, who he’s kept fully briefed on the situation, and with the general public.
