Grant Shapps

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Grant Shapps (born September 14, 1968, Watford) is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield in the United Kingdom, winning the seat in the 2005 election on 5 May 2005.


Contents

[edit] Biography

Shapps was born in Watford in Hertfordshire and educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys and Manchester Metropolitan University (then Manchester Polytechnic), where he received a Higher National Diploma[1]. In 1990 he founded his own printing company, PrintHouse Corporation, which has grown into a successful commercial design, print and web development company[2]. He married Belinda in 1997 and they have three children[3].

[edit] Political career

Shapps first stood for Parliament during the 1997 election as the Conservative candidate for North Southwark and Bermondsey, coming third[4]. In 1999 he was selected for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency for the 2001 election.[citation needed]

Shapps was reselected to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 2002 and continued his local campaigning over the next four years, he stood again in the 2005 election and was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, defeating the Labour MP and by then Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes (49.6%) on a 8.2% swing from Labour to Conservative, a majority of 5,946 (13.3%). During the four year campaign he is estimated to have outspent his opponent by twelve times. [5] According to Simon Hoggart writing in The Guardian, Shapps had 22 pictures of himself in his election address,[6] although Hoggart did concede that those who pitched "person" over "party" received better results in the 2005 election.[6] The Welwyn Hatfield swing was the second highest Labour to Conservative swing of the 2005 election.[6]

Shapps publicly supported David Cameron's bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party and signed Cameron's nomination papers. Upon Cameron's election as Party Leader Shapps was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Campaigning.[citation needed]

Shapps was a member of the Public Administration Select Committee between May 2005 and Feb 2007, when he stood down in order to concentrate on his Conservative Front Bench Campaigning role.[citation needed]

[edit] Shadow housing minister

In July 2007, Grant Shapps became Shadow Housing Minister attending Shadow Cabinet[7].

At a time when Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made housing a priority, Shapps is responsible for developing Conservative housing policy.[citation needed] He argues in favour of a community-led approach to solving the housing crisis and warns against the Government's strategy of top-down, Whitehall driven housing targets, which he believes have failed in the past.[8] His Housing portfolio is considered to be one of the battlegrounds for the next British General Election.[citation needed] In his 2007 Party Conference speech on Housing, Shapps outlined a vision of localism being used to replace centrally imposed housing targets with the aim of creating more new build overall.[9]

In May 2008, Grant Shapps revealed to parliamentary commissioner that he had accepted donations amounting to several thousand pounds from companies linked to his housing portfolio.[10] Because of the companies links to his portfolio, there were allegations of sleaze in the press.[11] The Conservative party denied that Grant Shapps had been influenced by the donations and a party spokesman is reported to have said "Some of the Conservative policy on housing is actually against the policy of the donors".[12] Shadow ministers are allowed to receive donations from organisations covered by their brief as long as the person has a company in the UK or lives in the UK.[10] The Commissioner exonerated all shadow cabinet members involved.[11]

[edit] Reports and Research

Grant Shapps has used his time in Parliament to research and publish a wide range of reports[13] on a variety of subjects that often receive national press coverage.[14] [15] [16] [17]

Since becoming Shadow Housing Minister, four of Shapps' reports have dealt with the causes and effect of homelessness from rough sleeping through to so-called "sofa surfing"[18] On Christmas Eve 2007, Shapps slept on the pavement of Victoria station in a sleeping bag, waking Christmas morning soaked from a downpour.[19] Shapps admits it was a publicity stunt to draw attention to the fact that 130,000 children sleep rough every night, saying, "It served its purpose. Homelessness struggles to get on the news agenda and I wanted to try and highlight the plight of children who sleep rough every night".[19] His work became sufficiently influential within the homelessness sector that when he launched the Homelessness Foundation with Conservative leader David Cameron in May 2008, leading lights from the sector including Chief Executives from charities like Shelter, Crisis and the Founder of the Big Issue, John Bird, all joined the Advisory Panel of the Conservative Homelessness Foundation[20]. The Foundation's aim is to provide academic research into homelessness[21].

[edit] Business interests

In 1990, aged 21, Grant Shapps founded PrintHouse Corporation, a design, print, website creation and marketing business sited in London. He remains its Chairman.[22]

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC - Meet the MP: Grant Shapps
  2. ^ BBC - Meet the MP: Grant Shapps
  3. ^ [1] Grant Shapps MP - Profile Conservative Party]"
  4. ^ The Guardian
  5. ^ Michael White, "A little money helps", The Guardian, 31 March 2006.
  6. ^ a b c Simon Hoggart, "Here is Paul ... and here ... and here", The Guardian, 14 May 2005.
  7. ^ http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&PersonID=35434
  8. ^ Andrew Porter, "Shapps Sleeps rough for Christmas", The Telegraph, 29 December 2007.
  9. ^ Text of Grant Shapps's 2007 conference speech.
  10. ^ a b Shadow ministers take cash from firms linked to their portfolios The Guardian, 16 May 2008
  11. ^ a b Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's £500,000 secret donations
  12. ^ Shadow ministers take cash from firms linked to their portfolios The Guardian, 16 May 2008
  13. ^ http://www.shapps.com/reports
  14. ^ Roughly Sleeping on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme [2].
  15. ^ The Messy Business of Conception on BBC TV [3]
  16. ^ Underperformance of the Assets Recovery Agency on BBC Radio File on 4 [4]
  17. ^ Inconsistencies regarding retention of innocent children's DNA Data BBC One TV News Coverage [5]
  18. ^ Studies and Reports by Grant Shapps MP
  19. ^ a b Porter, Andrew (GMT 29/12/2007). How Grant Shapps slept rough for Christmas, telegraph.co.uk. Accessed 2008-05-31.
  20. ^ BBC Homelessness a disgrace - Cameron
  21. ^ Tories launch new group to tackle homelessness
  22. ^ http://www.printhouse.co.uk/ABOUTUS.html

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Melanie Johnson		 Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield
2005–Present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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In attendance: Anelay · Lidington · Shapps