Martin Francis was born in Kingsbury and now lives in Wembley. He recently retired from his post as headteacher of a Wembley primary school. He was a union representative at Reuters and an NUT rep at various schools. Francis is now a governor of two Brent primary schools and a trustee of the Brent Play Association, in addition to which he runs an environmental children's project, Brent School Without Walls. He is the chair of Brent Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Locally he has opposed city academies, and unsustainable regeneration schemes in Brent Cross and Wembley, fought to preserve local open spaces, and opposed the attacks on Harrow Mosque.