About us

Richard Rimkus is the founder and chairman of Conservative Friends of the Baltic States.

He is also a President of Hornchurch & Upminster Conservative Association.

Richard was born and raised in the small town of Silute, Lithuania (population 16,812). After graduating from high school, he spent three years learning carpentry and furniture making craftsmanship at a local college.

In 1998, Richard emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he started working as a carpenter in London.  Over the next ten years, he worked his way up and in 2009, he set up his own successful company. Richard married Irma in 2008 and is a father of two.

Richard is an enthusiastic follower of sports and politics. He also has several philanthropic interests. For example, in December 2017 he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) to raise funds for a local children’s with disability charity. He recently competed in a 5600-mile Sahara Desert race from Budapest (Hungary) to Freetown (Sierra Leone) to raise money for Children’s Social Day Centre that provides a safe place for young underprivileged children from socially supported and high risk families and is located in his hometown Silute (Lithuania).

Richard is also the founder of the international conservative platform Conservatives.Global

John attended Winchester College and then University College, London, where he graduated with a degree in economics. Having been Head of the Political Section in the Conservative Research Department, he was appointed Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1984, serving three successive Secretaries of State (SoS) until 1987.

He then worked in the City before returning to Government work in 1989 when he was appointed Political Secretary to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He served as her Private Secretary until his election as the MP for South Colchester and Maldon in 1992. He was awarded an OBE in her resignation honours list.

He served as a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Health from 1993 to 1997 and was also Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister for Education and Employment between 1994 and 1996.

Following the 1997 election he spent a year as an Opposition Whip before becoming a Treasury spokesman.

In 1999 he became PPS to the Leader of the Opposition, William Hague. John was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow SoS for Trade and Industry in 2001 and became Shadow SoS for Culture, Media and Sport in 2002.

He left the Shadow Cabinet after the 2005 election. In July 2005 he was elected Chairman of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, a position that he held for 10 years.

Following the 2015 General Election, John was appointed SoS for Culture, Media and Sport and became a member of the Privy Council. He stepped down in July 2016.

John was Vice Chairman of the 1922 Committee, which represents Conservative MPs, from 2006 to 2015. He is a member of the Executive of the British Group of the Inter Parliamentary Union. He is also Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, and Chairman of the All Party Writers Group.

The Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green in London on 1st April 1992. He was also a member of a number of Select Committees during that time.

Between 1997 and 2001, he was Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security and then Secretary of State for Defence. From 2001 to 2003, he was leader of the Conservative Party and then from 2003, having stepped down as leader of the Conservative Party, he set up the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). The CSJ is an organisation dedicated to focussing on the problems facing those in the lowest income groups in society.

In 2010, Iain Duncan Smith became Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a position he held until he resigned in a dispute over the Chancellor’s determination to reduce his expenditure on disability benefits by over £1 billion.

He took a lead role in the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the EU referendum on 23 June 2016 appearing many times in the media and public debates and is now working alongside colleagues to ensure the Government achieves a smooth and rapid exit from the EU and forms a new relationship based on trade, continuing friendship and cooperation. He has also become a Fellow of the Centre for Brexit Policy, an organization that will propose the critical policy changes enabled by Brexit that will boost national prosperity and well-being in years to come, as well as help ensure that Britain fully ‘takes back control’ when it leaves the European Union.

Before entering politics, he served in the Scots Guards from 1975 to 1982. During this time, he saw service in Northern Ireland and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. After leaving the army, he worked in industry, first with the GUC and then as a Director of a property company and subsequently as a Director at the publishing company, Jane’s Information Group.