Grant Shapps

The current secretary of state at the Department for Transport, Grant Shapps has been the MP for Welwyn Hatfield since 2005. Particularly industrious in his youth, Shapps set up and ran his own printing company in 1990, which has since expanded to web development and marketing. Shortly after his election, Shapps was appointed to the role of co-chair of the Conservative Party, remaining there until the formation of the coalition government in 2010. He became minister of state at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in 2010. He remained in the role until 2012, when he was relocated to the Cabinet Office as minister without portfolio. During his time as a minister of state at DCLG – now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – he was a member of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission. Shapps supervised the successful Road Trip 2015 Conservative activists’ operation in marginal seats throughout the country. Shapps was later forced to resign as a minister in the Department for International Development for his alleged links to the controversial activist Mark Clarke, who was subsequently banned from the party for life. Shapps supported Remain in the 2016 referendum and rebelled against Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement upon two occasions, although he eventually voted to pass the deal on 29 March 2019. He was appointed secretary of state for transport by the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in July 2019, and increased his parliamentary majority to 10,955 later that year.