Grant Shapps

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.

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. In 1990 he founded his own printing company, PrintHouse Corporation, which has grown into a successful commercial design, print and web development company. He married Belinda in 1997 and they have three children.

Political Career

Shapps first stood for Parliament during the 1997 election as the Conservative candidate for North Southwark and Bermondsey, coming third. He was then selected for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency for the 2001 election, coming second. Having continued to campaign locally for four years, he stood again in the 2005 election and was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, defeating the Labour MP and then Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes (49.6%) on a 9.2% swing from Labour to Conservative, a majority of 5,946 (13.3%). He is estimated to have spent twelve times what Johnson was able to invest in her campaign,^[1] being particularly assisted by the donation of printing costs by his printing company. According to Simon Hoggart writing in The Guardian, Shapps had 22 pictures of himself in his election address,^[2] although Hoggart did concede that those who pitched "person" over "party" received better results. Shapps remains a prominent campaigner in his Welwyn Hatfield constituency, but also investigates national issues, often in the fields of Health and Home Affairs. He regularly publishes reports on his website which are occasionally covered by the national press. He 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. 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. He has also held the following political appointments:

• July 2005 member of the Public Administration Committee
• December 2005 - Vice Chairman: Campaigning
• June 2007 - Shadow Housing Minister (attending cabinet)

At a time when Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made housing a priority, Shapps is responsible for developing Conservative housing policy. 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. His Housing portfolio is widely considered to be one of the principle battlegrounds for the next British General Election. 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.^[3]

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. In 2002 Grant Shapps separated the internet marketing function from PrintHouse, creating HowToCorp. Initially it marketed products written by Shapps using the pen name Michael Green, but the company now uses Michael Green as a publishing name, with the products primarily commercially written by third-parties and marketed by HowToCorp Ltd.

References

1. ^ Michael White, The Guardian, 31 March 2006 [1]
2. ^ Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, 14 May 2005 [2]
3. ^ Text of Grant Shapp's 2007 conference speech [3]

External links

• Grant Shapps MP official site
• PrintHouse Corporation
• HowToCorp