At 31, he was the youngest Police and Crime Commissioner in Britain when he was elected in 2016. Seven years on and Matthew Scott’s campaigning for a third term of holding Kent’s force to account. Simon Finlay met him to find out how his family, and a failed run at Westminster, put him on the path to his ‘perfect job’...

Tucked away in a nondescript cranny of the Kent Police headquarters in Maidstone is a half-lit open-plan office.

There must be 15 workstations but they're all empty.

Things are "always quiet" on a Tuesday, apparently, but it could just as well be a Sunday.

This is the base of the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner (KPCC), Matthew Scott, and his team.

Mr Scott's own office is spartan, although he points out the Apple Mac on his desk is his own.

"Wouldn't want your readers thinking that's what we spend their money on," he jokes.

There are small black and white photos mounted on the wall depicting the police and their vehicles from yesteryear.

The one nearest the door falls off if the commissioner's door slams.

"Not that I ever slam it, of course," Mr Scott adds quickly.

He's up for re-election to a third term next May and is making himself available to the media. He's out of the traps before the other parties have even chosen their candidates.

He is perhaps mindful of how Ann Barnes, Kent's first commissioner, swept to victory by a handsome margin in 2012, albeit on a 17% turnout.

She had taken on Peter Carroll, a Liberal Democrat by persuasion and something of a shrewd electoral tactician, to run the campaign.

It was a masterstroke. Mr Carroll promoted her independent, non-political status in the county's newsrooms and radio and TV studios.

Then came masterstroke number two. Mrs Barnes sent a personalised letter of introduction to every household she could get an address for in Kent – which landed on doormats the same day as the postal ballots arrived.

She polled more than 65% of the vote.

If Mrs Barnes' victory was a triumph, her four years in office were not, not least when she allowed a Channel 4 TV crew enough ammunition to undermine her credibility.

Mr Scott seems too careful a man to have allowed that to happen to him when he was first elected in 2016.

Matthew Richard Scott, married with a young family, was born 39 years ago in central London where his father served as a middle-ranking officer in the Metropolitan Police.

The Scotts moved to the Bexley area when he was a youngster and attended a local state primary school, passing his 11 plus.

“That was my ticket to Beths Grammar School,” he says.

There he was “more academic than sporty” although he did turn out for the school’s rugby team for a couple of years “which didn’t go very well”.

“I have dipped in and out of playing football throughout my youth and adult life but I had a very strong interest in numbers and history and later, politics.”

His lack of sporting prowess has not dimmed his dedication to supporting Tottenham Hotspur, despite growing up in a fanatical Charlton Athletic area of Kent.

It was the early 1990s. Glenn Hoddle was gone but settled for Robbie Keane, Teddy Sheringham and Jurgen Klinsmann as early sporting heroes.

He read public policy – "a more practical study of politics and how politics works" – at Birmingham University where he took part in modern biathlons and triathlons.

But his interest in politics awoke in him in sixth form when he “started to pound the streets” just after the 2001 general election at which the luckless Conservative leader William Hague managed to “stand still” after the New Labour trouncing four years earlier.

“I think we gained seven and lost six, so we had a net gain of one. I had a lot of respect for William Hague who I thought was a good man and very principled.

“But obviously Tony Blair was in his full pomp and very strong as a leader so it was going to be very hard for anyone to overcome that kind of deficit."

Mr Scott credits former Folkestone and Hythe MP (now Lord) Michael Howard as laying the foundation for the rise of David Cameron, his one-time protege. Those men along with Margaret Thatcher are his own personal political inspirations.

He credits Lord Howard as the man who "turned the tanker around" and gave space in opposition for Cameron and his shadow chancellor George Osborne "to set out a more transformational vision for the country".

Mr Scott recalls Cameron's stance on the environment was ahead of mainstream political thinking at the time "and look where we are now 18 years later".

Other policies such as tax-free child care changed the view of modern Conservatism and made the party more appealing to the electorate in the centre ground.

"In opposition, parties can tend veer one way or the other but elections are usually won from the centre. That approach was the right one."

So what drew the teenage Scott to the Conservative Party?

"For me, it was about opportunity. In certain circumstances, the state can support that opportunity but, in others, it is better to give people the opportunity to help themselves."

His first job in politics was as aide to the Tory MP and one-time minister Sir David Evennett, firstly as a parliamentary assistant and over 11 years became heavily involved in liaising at a much higher level with government departments, such as justice and education.

"Policing has been in my family for generations as has nursing – there was a lot of public service in my family...”

"Those were very interesting times and gave me a really valuable insight into how Westminster works in a practical sense."

That, he says, has helped in his commissioner role in securing funding for victims' services and post-Brexit arrangements. "It's been incredibly successful."

Mr Scott stood in the 2015 general election in Leyton and Wanstead (he came a distant second to Labour's John Cryer) and because he was on the official Tory candidates' list was notified of the chance to stand in the 2016 poll for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.

He thought he had a fair shout, not least because his father had served in the police, as does his brother.

"Policing has been in my family for generations as has nursing – there was a lot of public service in my family,” he said.

“I thought ‘this is the role for me, I think I can do that really well’."

It is not an unreasonable question, perhaps, to ask what the role of the KPCC is actually for and whether it fulfils the brief.

"For me, it's two things,” he replies.

“One is to be a champion for the victims of crime – we are there to make sure the police listen and the wider criminal justice system works; that irrespective of the outcome, they have someone there at a high level putting their needs first.

"The second is to be a community advocate because crime and antisocial behaviour does not respect borders.

“So there will be burglaries in Dartford and Dover. There will be antisocial behaviour in Sevenoaks and Sandwich.

"But, in Kent, we are very diverse. We are urban, rural and coastal. Each of those areas has the same problems that need addressing to different scales but they have different challenges as well. So we have to advocate for all our communities.

"I think that over the last seven-and-a-half years we've been quite effective in doing that. We've done a lot of work with the chief constable on gangs and county lines whilst at the same time in doubling the size of the rural policing team."

A more recent focus has been on neighbourhood policing and putting bobbies on the beat while investing in fraud and economic crime, said Mr Scott.

Asked if someone took a picture of him and went door to door on the Shepway estate (across the road from police HQ), how many people would know who he was, Mr Scott replies: "That's a fair question, but I would say the same of your local councillor or parish councillor.

"Getting recognition for this role has been tough because it's still relatively new. I am confident that I get recognised in some areas, maybe more than others, but it's still a role that's only 11 years old."

Mr Scott is widely respected by county councillors who see him as across the brief, who rarely struggles to respond to searching questions.

One senior Tory remarked: "He is seen as a good guy. He never turns up at a (police and crime) panel unprepared. He's armed with the best facts and figures he can get and he's rarely too far wrong in his assessments.

"He's not the police but he's the guy who holds Kent Police to account. Matthew Scott is good at his job, no question."

The KPCC election next May is likely to happen before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces a general election. If the pollsters are right, the Conservatives are unlikely to fare well.

"It's naive to think that national issues and national performance doesn't impact on local elections,” he said. “But I think I have got a track record of action and delivery."

Leaving aside jobs in his youth stacking shelves in Safeway or acting as a steward at few Birmingham City football matches, Mr Scott has always worked in professional politics.

He added: "I think the experience I brought to this role proves that we shouldn't be so dismissive of people who have worked in politics. I am working in the real world with real people in real situations."

When his time is up as commissioner, does Westminster beckon?

"Maybe, maybe. Never say never. But I absolutely love this job."