Big Ben
From Tory-boy to Tory poster boy
BEN HOUCHEN’s political journey began in 2011 when, aged 24, he became a Tory councillor for the market town of Yarm, ten miles up the Tees from the former steelworks.
He remained a practising solicitor and in January 2015 became sole director of a law company, RU Licit Ltd, set up by colourful Dubai-based associate Richard Upshall. This advised another of Upshall’s operations, Askaris Information Technology, on a dispute in which it was later found to have been knowingly involved in a large VAT fraud a couple of years earlier. Shortly before the tribunal ruling, in 2019, Askaris would donate £15,000 to (by then) mayor Houchen.