Cartlidge's professional background is as an entrepreneur, having founded Share to Buy ltd, a shared ownership property portal, mortgage broker and host of the ‘London Home Show’, the capital's biggest event for first time buyers.
Political career
Cartlidge stood for parliament in Lewisham Deptford in the 2005 general election finishing third with 12.4% of the vote. He was also an elected member of Babergh District Council before his election to the House of Commons in May 2015. In the 2015 General Election Cartlidge won 53% of the vote, 34% more than the second place candidate from the Labour Party. Cartlidge won 2,996 more votes than the last election of his predecessor, the veteran MP Tim Yeo, who retired before Cartlidge's election having been de-selected. Cartlidge has championed South Suffolk produce and one of his first political acts was to bring a barrel of beer from Suffolk into the House of Commons, which he drank with his new parliamentary colleagues. He also held a South Suffolk Food Day in the House of Commons which featured businesses such as Jimmy's Farm, Suffolk Food Hall and Gifford's Hall Vineyard. The then Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The Rt HonElizabeth Truss MP attended the event and spoke to the producers about their businesses. Cartlidge has worked to improve mobile phone signal in the constituency and launched a campaign in Boxford for greater efforts to provide mobile telephone signal in 'not-spots'. He has taken a train journey from Sudbury to Marks Tey with Rail Executives from Abellio Greater Anglia, Network Rail and the Department for Transport to highlight issues for people travelling by train in the constituency. Cartlidge was elected to the Public Accounts Commission in November 2015 and the Work and Pensions Committee in October 2016. Cartlidge was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum. In January 2018 he was appointed as PPS to the Health SecretaryJeremy Hunt, and remained his PPS when Hunt was promoted as Foreign Secretary. In August 2019 he was appointed as PPS to the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. In 2019 Cartlidge was one of only 73 MPs to vote against equal marriage in Northern Ireland. He has publicly expressed his strong support for equal marriage but voted against imposing this law in Northern Ireland 'in absentia'. Cartlidge is the Patron of the Shotley Pier Project. This community project is working to restored the Victorian pier on the Shotley Pier.
Personal life
Cartlidge is married to Emily, with whom he has four children. His father-in-law is the former Conservative MP, Gerald Howarth, Member of Parliament for Aldershot until 2017.
