The incredible rags to riches story of former City trader Gary Stevenson who earned millions of pounds before becoming a social justice campaigner can be revealed by MailOnline.
Stevenson, 37, who commented on the earnings of BBC Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce and other panellists when he appeared on the show this week has made a name for himself as an unorthodox economics guru since giving up his glittering financial career.
His book The Trading Game about how he made a fortune as a trader while 'betting inequality was going to destroy our economy' became a Sunday Times number one bestseller last year.
Stevenson also has more than 1.1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel called Garys Economics which features videos of him demanding a wealth tax on the richest in society to help redistribute money to the poorest.
His book and his videos detail how he had a humble upbringing living with his parents, his brother and sister in a tiny three bedroom mid-terraced house with a back garden overlooking railway tracks in Francis Road, Ilford, Essex.
MailOnline has discovered that the Victorian house which his parents left when they moved out in 2021 is now in a state of disrepair and failed to sell at an auction earlier this month, despite having a relatively modest guide price of only £340,000.
Auctioneers' pictures of the interior of the house show it in mid-restoration with bare floorboards, tatty curtains, a tired looking kitchen and tiles ripped from the bathroom walls in preparation for a makeover.
The house appeared to be in a much better condition when Stevenson made a video of himself visiting his mother there in November 2021, showing the cramped bedroom which he shared with his brother as a child, as he recalled that he had the lower bunk.
Former financial trader and author Gary Stevenson speaks at a rally outside the Treasury calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to raise taxes on the wealthiest in order to fund public services to address growing inequality
The tiny three bedroom mid-terraced house in Ilford, Essex, that popular economist Gary Stevenson grew up in with his parents, brother and sister
Gary Stevenson (far left) stands in front of the house as a teen wearing a grey hoodie and a scarf
His book and his videos detail how he had a humble upbringing living with his parents (pictured), his brother and sister in a tiny three bedroom mid-terraced house
He also made a point of saying how the house had no shower, and he had to connect a rubber hose to the taps of the bath to provide water for a showerhead to wash his hair.
Stevenson who still has an East End accent and prefers wearing hoodies and sportswear to business suits, added: 'It's not a big house, but it meant a lot to me. It was small and crowded with five people, but it's where I lived.'
He has claimed that he 'grew up in poverty' with his Post Office worker father Paul and his teacher mother Lydia.
The opening paragraphs of his book suggested how he was first inspired to go into the City by glimpsing views of Canary Wharf tower blocks in the distance behind a telegraph pole and a lamppost which he used as a makeshift goal during street football games at the end of the street.
He described the distant buildings as 'gleaming towering temples of capitalism' with flashing lights on top which would appear to 'wink' at him in the night sky.
Stevenson talked of his upbringing, making a desire to earn money seeming all the more important.
He stated in his book: 'The knowledge of money and the knowledge that we didn't have much of it, was something I always felt deeply'.
Stevenson also remembered the anguish he felt when he lost a pound coin that his parents had given him to buy lemonade from a local Esso garage.
He detailed how he showed an early aptitude for capitalism at the age of 12 when he started selling penny sweets and then started a paper round when he was 13, earing £13 a week.
But his money-making schemes imploded when he was expelled from his grammar school at the age of 16 after being caught selling cannabis worth £3.
As a result, he had to study at home for his GCSEs, even though he did not have his own desk, which led to him using a plank of wood on the living room floor as a makeshift place to write.
A young Gary Stevenson in fancy dress in his bedroom at his childhood home in Ilford
Describing the house as 'often pretty crowded', he remembered his childhood playing Mega Drive computer games like Sonic The Hedgehog, but still working hard enough to get eight A* GCSEs and three A grades.
Stevenson who always had an aptitude for Maths carried on living with his parents while he studied Maths and Economics at the London School of Economics.
Stevenson detailed in his book how he was granted a Citibank internship at its 42-floor offices in Canary Wharf after winning a mathematical card game which later led to him getting a full time job on the bank's foreign exchange desk.
He claimed in his book that he was a multi-millionaire by his mid 20s, having become 'the bank's most profitable trader in the whole world', although that assertion has been strongly disputed by his former colleagues.
Stevenson left the bank in 2014 to study for an economics MPhil at Oxford University after working for a spell in Tokyo.
A MailOnline reporter was unable to find anyone who remembered Stevenson on a visit this week to his old street in Ilford.
The street has a number of anti-flytipping posters, although the amount of rubbish discarded in hedges suggests they are often ignored.
The Victorian house which his parents left when they moved out in 2021 is now in a state of disrepair
The home failed to sell at an auction earlier this month, despite having a relatively modest guide price of only £340,000
The house appeared to be in a much better condition when Stevenson made a video of himself visiting his mother there in November 2021, showing the cramped bedroom which he shared with his brother as a child, as he recalled that he had the lower bunk
Stevenson who still has an East End accent and prefers wearing hoodies and sportswear to business suits, says: 'It's not a big house, but it meant a lot to me. It was small and crowded with five people, but it's where I lived'
The area is also subject to a public spaces protection order issued by the Metropolitan Police and London Borough of Redbridge, making it a zone with 'no alcohol consumption', 'no public urination and or defaecation' and 'no groups of two or more'.
Signs in a nearby alleyway even proclaim that 'no person, shall attempt to buy sexual services from another person'.
The reporter saw what appeared to be half a dozen shady characters in the alleyway, but they moved away quickly when approached.
Several houses are in a state of disrepair and at least one has a Possession Order on the front door, saying it has been seized.
Another house has an electrical cable going into it through a small hole, that appears to have been drilled into the wall.
Stevenson was wearing one of his trademark black T-shirts when he appeared on Question Time on Thursday, and criticised 'growing wealth inequality' in the UK.
He was applauded by the audience as he called for a radical overhaul of the tax system with a wealth tax for multi-millionaires and billionaires to put more money in the pockets of working class and middle class people who have been left unable to buy homes due to soaring property prices.
Stevenson claimed the total Government deficit since Covid amounted to £20,000 for every adult in the UK, and suggested that every member of the panel was £20,000 richer while ordinary people in the audience had lost cash.
His claims appeared to rile veteran BBC presenter Fiona Bruce who told him: 'Hang on… Don't include us in all this' as he went on to say how the 'richest are getting richer'.
Stevenson's rant followed his appearance just days ago on Daniel Priestley's popular podcast The Diary of a CEO when he made similar calls to tackle growing financial inequality.
His former Citibank colleague Kent Bray who now works as a counsellor and features as a character called JB in Stevenson's book, questioned his argumentative manner on the podcast.
He said in a post on LinkedIn: 'Gary does himself a disservice in this debate. He keeps interrupting Daniel Priestley with his condescending, demeaning and patronising manner.
The middle of three children, Stevenson excelled at maths at Ilford County High, a grammar school, but was too poor to afford to go on school trips. At 16, he was expelled for dealing drugs after offloading £3 worth of cannabis to a classmate
Stevenson also writes in his autobiography about how he was a former aspiring grime MC
'The problem with this approach is his message gets diluted, or worse, people switch off. Why would Gary do this? Why would be adopt this manner? I saw it at Citibank.
'I believe Gary got nervous, felt uncomfortable. He went into fight mode. To me he looked out of his depth. 'I am not getting what I want here'. Child ego state kicked in.
'Daniel Priestley came with knowledge, facts, a calm demeanour and was prepared to engage and have an adult debate. He was very respectful of Gary. He remained in adult ego state.
'I thought it was very unfortunate, and sad, that one of the takeaways from Gary's dialogue is that if you are young, it's going to be impossible to get wealthy.
'Gary is relevant. He has a message. He has a following. He is not going away.'
He added: 'Whilst I don't agree with Gary on all he says, and I have been very critical of his claims about his time at Citi, especially his inflated view of his trading ability, I do really hope he gets enough support to put pressure on the government in all sorts of areas.
'It's a tall order, a very tough task, and I would not be betting on his success, but it looks like he is prepared to have a crack at it. He has passion and desire. Go for it mate.
'To do this, he will need to work with others, and to do that, he needs to LISTEN more. Be open to others ideas.
'CAVEAT - I do really hope his passion and desire is genuine and authentic and not just some social media quest for fame and money.'
