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Grant Shapps
Sir Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from August 2023 to July 2024. Shapps previously served in various cabinet posts, including Conservative Party Co-Chairman, Transport Secretary, Home Secretary, Business Secretary, and Energy Secretary under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield from 2005 to 2024. He was defeated and lost his seat in the 2024 general election.
Shapps was first promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in 2007. Following David Cameron's appointment as Prime Minister in 2010, Shapps was appointed Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. In the 2012 cabinet reshuffle he was promoted to the Cabinet as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio. In May 2015, he was demoted from the Cabinet, becoming Minister of State for International Development. In November 2015, he stood down from this post due to his handling of allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party.
In 2019 Shapps supported Boris Johnson's successful 2019 Conservative leadership bid. Upon becoming Prime Minister, Johnson appointed Shapps Transport Secretary. Since Shapps assumed the role it has exercised greater influence than under his predecessors, with the effective nationalisation of the Northern Trains franchise, the Williams–Shapps Review to move from a rail franchise system to concessionary Great British Railways public body (from 2023), and the Integrated Rail Plan published in 2021 which sets out the long-term strategy for rail in northern England and the Midlands.
In September 2022, Johnson's successor, Liz Truss, dismissed Shapps as Transport Secretary and he returned to the backbenches. In October 2022, amid a government crisis, Truss appointed Shapps as Home Secretary, replacing Suella Braverman. After Braverman was reappointed as Home Secretary when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, Shapps was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, succeeding Jacob Rees-Mogg. He was then appointed Energy Secretary in February 2023, and later Defence Secretary in August 2023, holding the position until being unseated at the 2024 General Election.
Grant Shapps was born on 14 September 1968 in Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, the son of Tony Shapps (c.1932–2023), who ran a cinematographic and photographic equipment business, and Beryl (née Grossman). His family is Jewish. Grant's brother, André Shapps, is a musician who was a member of Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) between 1994 and 1998, playing keyboards. Their cousin Mick Jones was a key figure in British punk rock of the late 1970s and a founding member of both the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite.
Grant Shapps was educated at Yorke Mead Primary School, Watford Grammar School for Boys, where he achieved 5 'O' Levels, and at West Herts College in Watford, where he studied business and finance. He subsequently completed a business and finance course at Manchester Polytechnic, and received a Higher National Diploma.
Shapps was also National President of the Jewish youth organisation BBYO. In 1989, he was involved in a car crash in Kansas, United States, that left him in a coma for a week.
Shapps started his working life as a photocopier sales representative. In 1990, aged 22, Shapps founded PrintHouse Corporation, a design, print, website creation and marketing business in London, based on a collapsed printing business he purchased from the receiver. He stepped down as a director in 2009, but remained the majority shareholder.
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Grant Shapps
Sir Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from August 2023 to July 2024. Shapps previously served in various cabinet posts, including Conservative Party Co-Chairman, Transport Secretary, Home Secretary, Business Secretary, and Energy Secretary under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield from 2005 to 2024. He was defeated and lost his seat in the 2024 general election.
Shapps was first promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in 2007. Following David Cameron's appointment as Prime Minister in 2010, Shapps was appointed Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. In the 2012 cabinet reshuffle he was promoted to the Cabinet as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio. In May 2015, he was demoted from the Cabinet, becoming Minister of State for International Development. In November 2015, he stood down from this post due to his handling of allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party.
In 2019 Shapps supported Boris Johnson's successful 2019 Conservative leadership bid. Upon becoming Prime Minister, Johnson appointed Shapps Transport Secretary. Since Shapps assumed the role it has exercised greater influence than under his predecessors, with the effective nationalisation of the Northern Trains franchise, the Williams–Shapps Review to move from a rail franchise system to concessionary Great British Railways public body (from 2023), and the Integrated Rail Plan published in 2021 which sets out the long-term strategy for rail in northern England and the Midlands.
In September 2022, Johnson's successor, Liz Truss, dismissed Shapps as Transport Secretary and he returned to the backbenches. In October 2022, amid a government crisis, Truss appointed Shapps as Home Secretary, replacing Suella Braverman. After Braverman was reappointed as Home Secretary when Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, Shapps was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, succeeding Jacob Rees-Mogg. He was then appointed Energy Secretary in February 2023, and later Defence Secretary in August 2023, holding the position until being unseated at the 2024 General Election.
Grant Shapps was born on 14 September 1968 in Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, the son of Tony Shapps (c.1932–2023), who ran a cinematographic and photographic equipment business, and Beryl (née Grossman). His family is Jewish. Grant's brother, André Shapps, is a musician who was a member of Big Audio Dynamite (BAD) between 1994 and 1998, playing keyboards. Their cousin Mick Jones was a key figure in British punk rock of the late 1970s and a founding member of both the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite.
Grant Shapps was educated at Yorke Mead Primary School, Watford Grammar School for Boys, where he achieved 5 'O' Levels, and at West Herts College in Watford, where he studied business and finance. He subsequently completed a business and finance course at Manchester Polytechnic, and received a Higher National Diploma.
Shapps was also National President of the Jewish youth organisation BBYO. In 1989, he was involved in a car crash in Kansas, United States, that left him in a coma for a week.
Shapps started his working life as a photocopier sales representative. In 1990, aged 22, Shapps founded PrintHouse Corporation, a design, print, website creation and marketing business in London, based on a collapsed printing business he purchased from the receiver. He stepped down as a director in 2009, but remained the majority shareholder.