Commons touch

Summary
¦ Richard Lambert has never owned a car.
¦ He spent 10 years working at the House of Commons.
¦ He is a West Ham season ticket holder.
¦ He’s a fan of late 1970s rock.
¦ He’s been CEO of the BWF for nine years.

Richard Lambert, chief executive of the British Woodworking Federation (BWF), is a self-confessed “urban animal”. Which is probably handy when you consider he has never owned a car and relies wholly on public transport.

“One of the reasons I now live in central London was because where I grew up was neither one thing nor the other,” he said.

Richard grew up in typical west London suburbia, the oldest of three children. The family home near Hillingdon Station was at the bottom of a hill near a dairy farm.

“I never want to go back. We had all the disadvantages of living in the town and none of the advantages of living in the country.”

From the age of seven he harboured a strong ambition to study history at university. His father, an insurance broker who later turned to magazine publishing, encouraged his university aims.

Richard describes himself as a school underachiever. “I got good grades but the school reports said ‘could do so much better.’ If I was interested in it I put a lot of effort in, otherwise I just coasted.”

“In the run-up to my O-levels my dad put it into my mind that I could think about trying to get into Oxford or Cambridge.”

Richard’s parents then split up when he was 16, creating a “cloud” which hung over his teenage years.

Early teenage jobs included a paper round and working for Marjacks DIY store in Uxbridge, including a week in the timber yard.

A real turning point came during his lower sixth year. Knowing that Richard was contemplating taking the Oxbridge entrance exam, his history tutor took him aside and pulled books off the bookshelves, creating a big pile for him to read during the summer. “I worked solidly through the summer holidays. I read everything.” On return his tutor was amazed that he had taken his advice literally.

Richard fulfilled his childhood ambition by securing a place at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, to read history.

“Going to Oxford was just a fantastic experience. It was the single most important experience of my life.

“I would say to anybody who is going to university, forget about a career, study something you are interested in, as you are exposed to some of the finest minds in the field.”

Contemporaries at St Edmund’s included Neil May, the founder of Natural Building Technologies, former England international rugby player Stuart Barnes (and current Sky rugby pundit), Paul Farrelly (now Newcastle-under-Lyme MP) and Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis, whose last comment to Richard was: “Do you want to come for a kick about?”

He graduated with an upper second-class degree, but his tutor dissuaded him from hopes of becoming an academic.

“There was no sense of the sort of career I wanted to do, so I did the knee-jerk reaction of every Oxbridge student and looked for a financial job in the city. But quite rightly I was given fairly short shrift.”

A Guardian advertisement for civil service trainees eventually led him to a job as trainee clerk at the House of Commons in 1984.

Richard went on to serve on select committees on agriculture, social services, the journal office and secretary of the delegations to interparliamentary assemblies (supporting MPs who are members of bodies such as NATO and the Council of Europe).

“I used to go to prime minister’s question time at every opportunity as we were allowed to stand behind the speaker’s chair. I was there when Ian Paisley made his speech on the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 and when Margaret Thatcher made her final speech as prime minister in 1990.”

The Thatcher years

A poignant memory of Mrs Thatcher came during an evening vote in the 1987-92 parliament. “I had one of those nights when I could not remember anyone’s name.” He routinely put his arm out to hold back the next MP to vote while ticking their name off. While trying to find John Spellar’s name he thrust his arm out, only to smell a waft of perfume and see that he had nearly done a karate chop on the prime minister.

“She was always incredibly nice to staff, particularly junior staff,” Richard added.

A highlight came in 1986-87 when he led a high profile inquiry into AIDS at aged just 24. “For three weeks in 1987 I was one of the top 10 experts on AIDS in the country.”

He transferred to the international section and spent four years travelling Europe and North America with MP delegations.

“That’s when I realised how much I liked politicians. I worked very closely with people like Geoffrey Johnson Smith and Tony Banks.

But a job change to a commercial lobbying firm was a “disaster” and was followed by more than a year of unemployment.

“I went from having everything to having no job and no career. I reached a point where I gave up completely and I really believed I would never work again.”

But his partner got a promotion and Richard was offered some freelance conference work before moving to a five-year stint at the British Property Federation,

His ambition of running an organisation eventually led him to the British Woodworking Federation. “This is the longest I’ve ever spent on one subject.

“Kevin Cubbage [the preceding BWF director] had pulled the BWF back from the brink and I thought there was an excellent opportunity to make it into a really good trade organisation.

“I think we have professionalised the organisation. If you looked at the BWF in 2002 it was a relatively small and inwardly looking technical focused organisation under the umbrella of the Construction Federation.

“In 2011 it’s a medium-sized trade association which is independent, freestanding, outward-looking and has so many activities.

He married for the second time in 2004 and has two children Rebecca, 13 and Daniel, 10.

He has been a season ticket holder at West Ham United since 1992, which grew from a spell living in Upton Park.

“My son was eight before he realised “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” was not the national anthem,” he joked.

Music likes include Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and Rush, while TV favourites include the West Wing. At home he does all the cooking.

Richard had a Catholic upbringing, but now professes to be an atheist, though he got on particularly well with his missionary aunt who headed up the global order of the Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph.

Richard’s middle brother is now a Travis Perkins branch manager in Cornwall, while his youngest brother is a cab controller still living in Ickenham.