From farmer to fashion retailer via a campaign to become a Tory MP... Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones enjoys challenging convention. Here the maverick entrepreneur talks about sausages, suits and sticking up for small business

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones strolls into our meeting dressed in his trademark sharp suit and wide-brimmed hat. He looks relaxed, not particularly farmer-like and too cool to be a Conservative MP. But then Emmanuel-Jones likes to play with people's expectations. Despite being known as The Black Farmer and creating a successful brand with that name, he's not a very hands-on farmer. His small farm in Devon is home to some Red Ruby Devon cattle ("the easiest sort of farming," he says) but he admits he hasn't been there in ages.

And he just missed becoming a Tory MP at the last election, losing by 2,470 votes to a Liberal Democrat (more of that later). It's obvious that Emmanuel-Jones enjoys being contrary. His mission seems to be about breaking down stereotypes and defying convention. At one point he claims the idea behind The Black Farmer was to create "a maverick brand that challenges stereotypes" and that stands for not being held back by others. "The Black Farmer is about being his own man, being free, being an outsider, fighting against the big boys, trying to make his way through the tough world we live in," he says.

The latest example of defying convention is an adventure into the world of fashion. Yes, you read correctly. The Black Farmer, chiefly a sausage brand, is moving into clothing. And we're not talking "I heart sausage" T-shirts. Launched at the Conservative Party conference, Black Farmer menswear consists of expensive, well-tailored suits, leather gilets and scarves. In short, it's the sort of outfit Emmanuel-Jones has made his trademark. But he insists a broader range of clothes will follow next year, along with womenswear.

Julia Wild, managing director of Iconic Brand Agency, isn't convinced the switch will work. "Food into clothing is a big stretch. The reason Wall's doesn't launch a range of clothes is because it isn't seen to know about clothes. How can a company specialising in food be taken seriously as a quality clothes retailer? It lacks credibility. Would you buy a new suit from someone who spends more time in wellies than they do shoes?"

But Emmanuel-Jones is proud of his sartorial style—a look at how he has chosen to model his own range tells you that—and he's hardly ever seen out in wellies. He grins when I suggest that the leap from sausages to suits isn't an obvious one. "What seems to be happening in my life is everything to prevent being trapped or constrained. One of the biggest problems brands tend to have is stretch, because people don't believe them. If Heinz went into clothes, people wouldn't believe them. But they are established as doing soup or beans. I don't want to be trapped by constraints."

The move chimes with another of his favourite themes: jeopardy. Every successful business, he says, has an element of it. If consumers are uncertain what a brand will do next, it causes an emotional engagement that helps the brand to thrive.

"Part of the fundamental human condition is to have jeopardy in our lives. As civilised people we try to manage it out. But people get interested when they don't know what's going to happen next. The big, established brands are sterile and predictable. Where there is some risk, where people aren't too sure, they want to find out more. It's easier to engage them." He cites the young Richard Branson at the time he launched Virgin as an example. "Virgin in its heyday was a great brand for jeopardy. The name itself was shocking and people used to think 'bloody hell, now he's doing planes, is this guy nuts?' They were interested in the brand."

Wild disputes the comparison. "Virgin's ability to sell everything from train tickets to financial services to gyms stems from Sir Richard's vision and personality. They're carried throughout the businesses and there's a clear set of corporate brand values. It took Virgin years to become that trusted. The Black Farmer is trying to make too great a leap, too quickly."

But Emmanuel-Jones remains confident in his relationship with consumers and claims his approach will become the norm. "The spread of the internet and social networking means consumers want to have a relationship with real people. If you go on to Facebook, Twitter or my website, you'll see people having a relationship. There is a strong need for consumers to feel and touch the people who are doing and making things on their behalf."

Managing customer relationships is the focus of everything The Black Farmer brand does. With only four full-time employees, the business doesn't have a sales force. Instead, it relies on customers. "We don't manufacture or distribute ourselves. Our skill base is consumer relationships. We are second to none in managing those relationships. Our success is down to consumers going to supermarkets and telling them they should stock my sausages. They go to stores and websites and post about it. I call them my infantry troops. They are my sales force. They want this Black Farmer geezer to be given a chance and to be looked after and given justice."

But surely this confidence in his ability to engage with people must have taken a knock after May? Having been picked as Tory candidate for the new Chippenham constituency, he lost to Duncan Hames. If he's hurt by the result he hides it, initially at least. He jokes that the loss gave him unexpected time on his hands and allowed the clothing range to happen. "We did it in five months when everyone said it couldn't be done and that fashion needed 18 months at the least," he says defiantly.

"The election was disappointing, I put four years of my life into it. But in politics circumstances determine the day. The collapse of the Labour vote buoyed the Liberal Democrat vote. What is heartening is that 21,500 people voted for me and anywhere else that would have been enough to win. The important thing in life is to learn from your mistakes and see how you could have done better. I think I did a pretty good job and got a good result."

For all his equanimity, mention the coalition and he starts a rant about the Liberal Democrats being a nasty party. "It's better to be in power than out of power," he starts. "David Cameron is very much a coalition type of person. But I am still getting over my defeat by the Liberal Democrats and it is taking me time to adjust. It was a nasty campaign. People don't believe what the Liberal Democrats..." He stops and restarts. "The view of the Liberal Democrats is changing, but they used to be a bit like the younger sibling. They would poke older children in the eye and when the older children told mum, it was them who got a slap because they should know better. I could never say what these [Lib Dem] people did, because no one would believe it and voters expected us to behave as the more mature party. They were in the perfect place to be critical because they had never been in power. Now they are having to make difficult decisions it will be interesting to see how they play it politically."

A similar rant arrives at the mention of supermarket power, an area where Emmanuel-Jones would like to see government intervention. "One reason this country is in a mess is that the last government was lazy in relying on a few people to supply the country with food. This allowed five giants to control the food chain. That is a massive disaster. Other people in the chain, like farmers and small producers, are treated badly. No one says anything about it because if you piss them off then you really are in trouble."

It's a typical symptom of a wider problem with the country, he says, which arises because those in government don't have a clue about business. "The route they all take is to go to a posh school, then a posh university and enjoy the debating society, and think 'this is pretty easy'. They go and work for some MP and then apply to be an MP. Then they get into parliament and live in a cocooned world where they sit down for ages discussing theories.

"Nothing gives you an understanding of something like experiencing it. I know what it is like for bank managers to say 'no'. I know what it is like to deal with all the admin of running a business. We are not a business-friendly nation and what we need are strong advocates fighting and championing business."

And this doesn't, he says, mean more jobs for the same old famous faces. Too much talk about entrepreneurs is focused on what he calls the "corporate names" such as Sir Philip Green or Sir Richard Branson. "These guys are no longer entrepreneurs. If Sir Philip rings a bank and wants to discuss something, banks come running. What we need to do is to celebrate smaller businesses. They are the backbone of this country's prosperity and they get ignored."

This support includes forcing banks to report details of lending. "We are in the age of entrepreneurialism and we need the banks to show how they are helping. I would put them under greater scrutiny, so that they report what percentage of loans goes to small businesses, what percentage to ethnic minorities and so on. Only when we have the detail will we be able to challenge what they say. The banks need to list who they are lending money to and how many of them are start-ups and what part of the country are they from. The banks should have to go out and beg people who are starting businesses to come to them because they know they'll have to report on how many new businesses they have lent to."

If government and the banks aren't doing enough, what about the boom in business television programmes? As a former TV producer, Emmanuel-Jones is well placed to critique their impact. "I don't think Dragons' Den or The Apprentice raise up business," he says. "Those of us who run businesses know it isn't like that. When people have an idea what stops them is fear. And the great antidote to fear is passion. When you are passionate about something you get over the hurdles that will come your way. It cost me about £350,000 to launch The Black Farmer brand without selling a sausage. But you always have more people telling you why something won't work than supporting you. That's why Dragons' Den is damaging. I don't think it's supportive of entrepreneurialism."

Fairness and exploitation are themes in most conversations with Emmanuel-Jones. Born into a large working-class Midlands family, he says his upbringing was tough. He has fought for everything he has achieved and says all he expects from society is that it offers everyone the same opportunities, regardless of race, class or gender.

"There has to be fairness of opportunity. Certain people, because of colour, race or sexuality start off on an unfair platform," he says, sounding like a Liberal. But then he adds: "The Labour Party has gone too far. You create a victim culture, where people use those elements to justify why they haven't achieved what they wanted to. All we can do is create fair conditions, then it's down to individuals and the choices and sacrifices they make, and the energy they put in."

It sounds sensible. Whether it is achievable remains to be seen, as does the success of his widening of his brand from sausages to suits. The odds may be stacked against him, and may favour failure over triumph, but with his relentless energy and his unflagging self-belief, I wouldn't bet against him.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is speaking at the IoD Annual Convention 2011