Dominic Johnson, Baron Johnson of Lainston

Johnson was born in London in 1974,^[2] son of Patrick Johnson and Juliet Elizabeth, daughter of Lt Andrew John Craig-Harvey, 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, of Lainston House, Sparsholt, near Winchester, Hampshire, now a hotel.^[3] Juliet's mother, Mary, daughter of Royal Navy Captain Robert Bradshaw Wilmot Sitwell, CBE, was a descendant, through her mother, of the Conservative politicians Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers and Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Bart, MP. Johnson's maternal uncle, Nicholas Craig-Harvey, is married to Lady Julia, a daughter of the Conservative politician Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland, and maternal granddaughter of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch, who as Earl of Dalkeith sat in the House of Commons.^[4][5][6][7]

Johnson was educated at Marlborough College before studying Politics at Collingwood College, Durham, graduating BA in 1995.^[2][8]

Johnson began his career in finance with Robert Fleming & Co. in 1995, and then with Jardine Fleming, Hong Kong, in 1998.^[9] In 2001, he went into asset management, and worked for Lloyd George Management until 2007.^[9][10] In 2007, he co-founded Somerset Capital Management (SCM) with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Edward Robertson.^[9][11] All three were colleagues at Lloyd George Management in Hong Kong.^[12] Rees-Mogg was CEO of SCM until Johnson succeeded him in 2010.^[12]

In September 2022, SCM with assets under management of about $5 billion was up for sale, with Johnson planning to move into politics, and would be succeeded by chief operating officer Robert Diggle as CEO.^[13]

From 2006 to 2010, Johnson served as a Conservative councillor for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.^[2]

In 2016, Johnson provided accommodation to former prime minister David Cameron^[2] which Cameron declared in the MPs' Register of Interests.^[14]

Johnson has donated more than £250,000 to the Conservative Party, and was its vice-chairman from 2016 to 2019.^[11] In the 2017 New Year Honours, Johnson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for political service".^[2]

On 2 October 2022, Johnson was appointed by Liz Truss as a Minister of State in the Cabinet Office and Minister of State for Investment in the Department for International Trade.^[11] Created a Life Peer to facilitate his ministerial role on 19 October 2022, he was introduced in the House of Lords as Baron Johnson of Lainston, of Lainston in the County of Hampshire.^[15][16] The territorial designation "Lainston" derives from his mother's family home, Lainston House, near Winchester in Hampshire, which is now a hotel.^[17] Lord Johnson was sacked by Truss's successor, Rishi Sunak, soon after becoming prime minister, then re-appointed as a minister of state for international trade on 24 November 2022.

In 2006, Johnson married Alice Rose Alethea Hamilton (born 1974), youngest daughter of Archibald Hamilton, Baron Hamilton of Epsom, formerly a Conservative government minister.^[18] Johnson also has a son called Victor who was born on the 6th May 2010, celebrating a Conservative win.^[19]