Company accounts and other official documents detail the chancellor Philip Hammond’s varied business career which stretched over four decades. Analysed by FT reporters, they show that his success varied greatly over the years.
A summer school for Iranian students
Fresh from Oxford in 1978, Philip Hammond and Colin Moynihan resolved to run a summer school for Iranian students, calling it Thames Educational Projects. (Source: Companies House)
Thames Educational Projects is derailed by the Iranian revolution 1979
However the scheme was derailed by a revolution in 1979, or as the pair put it, “international events outside the control of the company”. (Source: Companies House)\
Hammond purchases Speywood Medical for £1
At the age of 24 in 1980, Mr Hammond secured backing from Barclays bank to acquire Speywood Medical, a loss-making firm that manufactured electrodes and leads for electrocardiograph machines. (Source: Companies House)
Campaign leaflet from 1994
In 1994, Mr Hammond unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Newham on a platform of lower taxes, improved healthcare and the reintroduction of capital punishment. (Source: Newham Archives & Local Studies Library)
Campaign leaflet from 1997
Mr Hammond successfully contested the safe Conservative seat of Runnymede and Weybridge in 1997. (Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Centre)
Campaign leaflet from 1997
Mr Hammond sets out his stall for the 1997 general election. (Reproduced by permission of Surrey History Centre)
