Ben Nicholls

Ben Nicholls (born 20 October 1987) is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Romsey and Southampton North for the 2015 UK General Election, and founder and chair of the youth theatre charity RicNic.
Early life and education
Nicholls was born in Stoke-on-Trent. His family moved to Southampton when he was twelve, and he won a music scholarship to Winchester College. He then read music at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge he was a member of the Amateur Dramatic Club committee.
Non-political career
After graduating from university, Nicholls joined the civil service as a Fast Stream graduate entrant, and held a number of postings in the Department for Children, Schools and Families (later the Department for Education). In 2009 he was seconded to Lord Laming for his national child protection review, following the death of Baby P. In 2010 Nicholls was again seconded, this time to the House of Commons, as a cross-party adviser to the Education Select Committee.
In 2013 Nicholls joined the senior management team at Newham College, a 20,000-student further education college. He was responsible for communications, policy, public and external affairs, and as part of his role contributed a number of articles to the national press including the Guardian, TES and Huffington Post. He holds a senior research fellowship in education at the University of Buckingham, working closely with Alan Smithers.
At the age of sixteen, Nicholls co-founded RicNic, a youth theatre charity, which has since expanded to run projects in Hampshire, Oxford, Bristol and London. The charity has worked with over 500 young people during its eleven-year history. Its board of advisers includes Julian Fellowes, Jane Manning, Mary Fagan, Dame Beryl Grey, and Gavin Henderson. Nicholls has also been involved with the leadership of other charities including the Berners Trust and Red Balloon. He was for several years a primary school governor.
Political career
Nicholls was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Romsey and Southampton North, his home seat, in March 2014. The seat was represented by Sandra Gidley, a Liberal Democrat, from 2000 to 2010. A number of national polls and commentators have identified the seat as one of the most likely Liberal Democrat gains in 2015, in part due to the acknowledged campaigning strengths of the local team, which includes ten borough councillors.
Personal life
Nicholls lives in Bassett, Southampton. He is a practising Anglican and deputises in the choir at Romsey Abbey. Music is his dominant hobby; he runs a small London-based chamber choir, and a number of his compositions have been performed, including a musical which premiered at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Nicholls’ father is the academic David Nicholls; his mother is a secondary school teacher. Nicholls has a younger sister, a drama teacher, who also lives in Southampton.

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