Born in Edmonton in London, Evans came from a working-class background and attended Tottenham Technical College. He failed his eleven-plus and as a youngster he showed promise as a footballer and cricketer and played for Aston Villa, although without making any first-team appearances, between 1950 and 1954. An opening batsman, he also played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Warwickshire County Cricket Club at cricket, although, again, without making any first-team appearances. In 1960 Evans borrowed £500 to found his own industrial cleaning company, called Exclusive Office Cleaning, which later became Brengreen Holdings. He sold this for £32 million in 1986. Four years later, in 1990, he formed Broadreach, another industrial cleaning company, of which he was chairman for 12 years.
Evans served on the Luton Town Football Club's board of directors from 1977 to 22 May 1990 when he resigned. From November 1984 to 15 June 1989, Evans was the chairman of the club. The club played in the Football League First Division during Evans' tenure as chairman, and he presided over a controversial membership-only scheme for fans under which only members were allowed to attend matches at the club's home ground and away supporters were banned from the stadium. This was brought about by Millwall fans rioting and damaging the Kenilworth Road stadium during an FA Cup match against Luton on 13 March 1985. Evans was also chairman of the Lord's Taverners, along with being a member of the Finance and Administration Sub-Committee and a member of the General Committee of Middlesex County Cricket Club. As a cricketer, he represented Hertfordshire in the Minor Counties Championship between 1967 and 1968, made two Gillette Cup appearances for the team in 1969, scoring ten runs on his debut but a duck in his second match. He also made two appearances for Club Cricket Conference, the first in 1973 and the second in 1974.
Shortly before losing his seat, in early March 1997, he attracted controversy over unguarded remarks in an interview by sixth-formers at Stanborough School for a school magazine in which he referred to his opponent Melanie Johnson as a "single girl" with "bastard children", and claimed that the Birmingham Six were guilty and had "killed hundreds" before being caught, as well as making remarks considered racist, such as asking how the sixth-formers would feel if their daughter was raped by "some black bastard". The Six won substantial damages from Evans in July 1998, who thereafter apologised for what he had said and promised never to repeat it.
"Scarcely any Guardian or Independent article involving David Evans, former Tory MP for Welwyn and Hatfield, failed to mention his car-salesman's accent, a sound to chill the blood of any liberal—it seemed the incarnation of Thatcherite brutalism."
