His dad was a labourer. His mum was a school pupil guide. He attended Kingstanding College High School (now North Birmingham Academy), once dubbed “the worst school in Britain” by the Daily Mail owing to its GCSE pass rate of just 11%.
Gary Sambrook’s back-story is not that of a typical Conservative politician.
“I was from a family and an area where everyone had always voted Labour, and the solution to problems was always the state. But it wasn’t working. And I thought: ‘It doesn’t have to be like this,’” says Sambrook, whose age, 35, is another atypical aspect.
“In 10 years’ time I’ll be the average age of the 2024 intake of MPs, and in 20 years’ time I’ll be the average age of an MP.”
A new venture: Walk Through Walls
The now former MP for Birmingham Northfield – elected in 2019, then voted out in July 2024 – has time on his side but is wasting none of it. His new venture is Walk Through Walls, a business growth consultancy where he is managing partner.
“It’s about trying to connect business and politics and making sure people understand the gap in between and how to navigate it,” says Sambrook, the pace and passion of his words increasing.
“Throughout my 20 years in politics and knocking on doors, tens of thousands of them, people would always say: ‘I don’t think politics affects me.’
“Businesses are similar. They often wonder where the connection is, but every single thing a business does every day is in some way connected to politics. There is always a regulation, always a law, always a point of contention and debate. At Walk Through Walls, we try to bridge the gap.”
‘Bridging the gap’ – what does this ‘management speak’ mean?
“One element is about knowledge, about understanding how it all works. The second part is about influencing it. Politics has got lots of processes to it. It’s about having an insider’s insight into how the system works beside the scenes, and how that translates into news and the practical implications it has on you and your business. Whether you’re a charity, a trade union, a business, or a lobbying group, you want to try to influence what’s going on in the public policy space. There are lots of obstacles in the way – tax, regulations, etc – but there are also opportunities to influence and change things. At Walk Through Walls, we help people bridge the gap in understanding and seize those opportunities.”
Do you miss Westminster?
“Westminster was a wonderful place to be … but there’s always more than one way of skinning a cat. I’ve done the elected politician thing. Now I want to do it differently. Make an impact in business. As long as that’s scratching my itch, I don’t miss Parliament at all. Charles de Gaulle [French President] once said: ‘Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.’”
What does success look like for Walk Through Walls?
“The biggest thing for me is helping companies here in the West Midlands and elsewhere make a difference. Opening up doors of understanding and influence to make things better.”
Who came up with the name Walk Through Walls?
“That was the brainchild of Prof. Paul Cadman [CEO and exec chairman of WTW and of One Thousand Trades Group, in which WTW sits]. It symbolises what we want to do. There are barriers to growth in everything. Even the tallest of walls can be overcome by the smallest of doors. Ha – there’s another bit of management speak for you!”
An example of a current Walk Through Walls client?
“We’re working with PHTA (Precision Health Technologies Accelerator – based at the Birmingham Health Innovation Campus in Sellyoak) planning the inaugural Life Sciences Week conference in September – bringing together academia, business, investors to lead the national conversation on life sciences – and ultimately creating thousands of jobs and making the West Midlands a centrepoint for life sciences in the UK.”
