Greg Hands

Greg Hands is a dual British-American citizen. After being chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association, he began a career in banking, working in the City of London and New York. Whilst in the USA, he helped Rudi Guiliani’s campaign to become mayor of New York City. Hands was elected as a councillor on Hammersmith and Fulham Council in 1998, where he was leader of the Conservative group between 1999 and 2003. In 2005, he was elected in London’s most marginal constituency at that time. Hands soon after joined the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee and later the European Scrutiny Committee. Having served as a shadow minister for the Treasury, he became PPS to the then chancellor George Osborne before joining the whips office in 2011 as an assistant whip and then as deputy chief whip. After the 2015 election, Hands became chief secretary to the Treasury. Hands was a devoted believer in the “In” campaign during 2016’s EU referendum campaign, calling the EU single market the “greatest commitment to free trade that exists”. He led the Chelsea and Fulham Stronger in Europe campaign. After the result, Hands justified his new allegiance to leaving the EU by citing future, “better” trade deals with third countries. In 2019, he co-chaired the Prosperity UK Alternative Arrangements Commission inspecting the prominent issue of the Irish backstop. Under Theresa May, he was appointed as international trade minister but resigned in order to vote against a third runway at Heathrow Airport. He then was minister for London from 2017 to 2018. Following the Grenfell fire which killed 71 people, Hands called for Notting Hill Carnival to be moved out of respect for residents and mourners. His call was rejected across board, with the Justice4Grenfell coordinator Yvette Williams saying: “I’m failing to find the link between the Grenfell Tower fire and Carnival”. Locally, Hands has been a critic of the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, campaigning for its reopening. In 2020, Boris Johnson reappointed Hands to his previous post as international trade minister, just months before the transition period for Britain leaving the EU ends.