Career
Cartlidge is a businessman, and founded a website which helps first time home buyers in 2004. He has taken a train journey from Sudbury to Marks Tey to highlight issues to people travelling by train. His first political act was to bring a barrel of beer from Suffolk into the House of Commons, which he drank with his new parliamentary colleagues.
Cartlidge stood for parliament in Lewisham Deptford in the 2005 general election finishing third with 12.4% of the vote.
In the press and academic journals considered a strong safe seat, Cartlidge fractionally more than doubled majority in the South Suffolk constituency to 17,545 more votes than the next candidate"s 10,001 votes, his first election seeing a change in the party of the candidate who finished as runner-up, to the Labour Party and gaining 2,996 votes more than the veteran Member of Parliament for the seat Tim Yeo who retired before Cartlidge"s election, having been de-selected. Cartlidge is married to Emily, with whom he has four children.