Alan Duncan, 50, is MP for Rutland and Melton. After a stint with Shell Petroleum, from 1982 to 1992 he worked as a trader of crude oil and refined products, building up specialist knowledge of the Middle East and some impressive contacts.

The Sultan of Oman is an acquaintance and Duncan chairs the parliamentary Oman All-Party Group. In the early 1990s, he put together a finance deal that saved Pakistan from oil poverty.

The MP has since served as shadow foreign minister, with special responsibility for the Middle East.

Duncan read PPE at Oxford where he was president of the Oxford Union, and he was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.

The MP, who has homes in London and Rutland, is strongly against the post office closure programme.

Did you think you would get to where you are?

Yes, but it has just taken a lot longer than I thought. I knew from the age of 12 that I wanted to be a politician, but I wanted to make money first. As we have been in opposition for 10 years, it has been quite a long slog. I assumed I would be active in politics but in government rather than opposition.

Once you get the politics bug, you get it forever. I got it during the 1970 election. I remember reading all the manifestos. Then I was Liberal. I now say to my Lib Dem friends: “But then I grew up.”

When you realised that you had made your first million were you tempted to slow down?

I was an oil trader for 10 years, from my mid-20s. I was with Marc Rich, one of the pioneering companies that created the free market in oil. I would have been about 32 when I was worth £1m.

That money does not go very far, when you pay your tax, you buy one house in London and another in the country. But never look backwards, look forwards. It was a solid base for politics.

It is important not to be reliant on a parliamentary salary. You can never be an independent-minded politician if you haven’t got the confidence or means to turn around and tell people to shove it.

At 35, I was earning well into six figures. I resigned in 1988, and worked for myself in my last four years as an oil trader, when I was probably earning £400,000 a year. During that time, Kuwait was invaded and the oil supplies to Pakistan dried up. I supplied £500m-£600m worth of fuel oil into Pakistan – otherwise it would have run out of everything.

What is the secret of your success?

Persistence, determination and an understanding of the intense interaction between politicians and the press. A large element of politics is luck, besides knowing the right people. It’s also about hard work and really appreciating that if the world changes, your politics have to change a bit too.

Do you want to carry on till you drop?

Certainly in work I do. I don’t believe in retirement. I only believe in adjustment. I became an MP in 1992, and would happily do another 10 or 20 years if my constituents still like me. The key is to think whether one can still be useful.

What was your most prudent investment?

My two houses. I lived in Singapore from 1984 to 1986, where the tax rate was approximately 10 per cent. In 1986 I saw a house for sale off Smith Square and bought it within 48 hours. It is tiny, three windows and a door. I put my money into that house, £235,000, and now it is worth over £1m.

The Rutland property that I bought in 1990 is a four-bedroom stone house with two acres of land.

Have you had time for personal financial planning?

I do it all myself. I have a simple, fixed mortgage on my Rutland house. I have sensible life and insurance policies and all my savings are now in a Sipp.

Have you made any pension provision?

I have a parliamentary pension, and while I was in the oil business I paid as much as I could very early on into a personal pension. This is now a Sipp, which I manage cautiously.

However, because I have this provision the government wants to deduct a sum from my House of Commons pension. So much for self-reliance.

I think the pension rules are abysmal. Every single effort one makes to save comes up against rules, tax and obstacles. No wonder people prefer to invest in property.

What steps have you taken in terms of planning to pass on your wealth?

I have had a very simple and precisely-drawn will ever since I first owned a house at the age of 24. Sometimes I feel that making a will should be a condition of having a mortgage or owning a house. To leave a mess behind is so selfish.

Do you allow yourself the odd indulgence?

I drive a BMW X3, and I do spend a fortune on my garden in Rutland, where you will never see a weed. My other indulgence is travelling to the Middle East, where I really enjoy the culture and sunshine. I am solar-powered! I always go to Oman. It is a lovely country.

Picasso or Art Deco as an investment?

I have got some nice pieces of art and furniture but nothing I regard as an investment – just tasteful items that will keep their value, like a collection of Omani silverware vessels and incense burners. They are possessions rather than enhancing assets.

What is the most you have ever paid for a bottle of fine wine or champagne?

My real pleasure is to buy an occasional really good magnum of claret for a couple of hundred quid. Why stop at a little bottle when you can get a bigger one at better value?