1. Sir Grant Shapps was born on 14 September 1968 and is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from August 2023 to July 2024.
61 Facts About Grant Shapps
1. 2.
Grant Shapps was defeated and lost his seat in the 2024 general election.
3.
Grant Shapps was first promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in 2007.
4.
In 2019 Grant Shapps supported Boris Johnson's successful 2019 Conservative leadership bid.
5.
Grant Shapps 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.
6.
Grant Shapps subsequently completed a business and finance course at Manchester Polytechnic, and received a Higher National Diploma.
7.
Grant Shapps was National President of the Jewish youth organisation BBYO.
8.
Grant Shapps started his working life as a photocopier sales representative.
9.
In 1990, aged 22, Grant 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.
10.
Grant Shapps stepped down as a director in 2009, but remained the majority shareholder.
11.
Grant Shapps founded a web publishing business, How To Corp Limited, with his wife while he was recovering from cancer.
12.
Grant Shapps stood down as a director in July 2008; his wife remained as director until the company was dissolved in 2014.
13.
Grant Shapps denied having used a pseudonym after entering parliament and, in 2014, threatened legal action against a constituent who had stated on Facebook that he had.
14.
In March 2015, Grant Shapps said he had made an error in his interview with LBC and was "mistaken over the dates" of his outside employment.
15.
Grant Shapps said he had "over-firmly denied" having a second job.
16.
David Cameron defended Grant Shapps, saying he had made a mistake and it was time to "move on".
17.
In March 2015, Dean Archer, the constituent previously threatened with legal action by Grant Shapps, threatened Grant Shapps with legal action.
18.
Grant Shapps made his first foray into politics in 1990, when he was a Conservative candidate for a Labour-held seat in Old Moat ward on Manchester City Council.
19.
In 1994, Grant Shapps stood as a Conservative candidate for the two-member St Andrews ward in the London Borough of Brent local elections, but was unsuccessful in being returned as a councillor, with Labour narrowly holding both seats.
20.
Grant Shapps was reselected to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 2002 and continued his local campaigning over the next four years.
21.
Grant Shapps publicly backed David Cameron's bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, seconding Cameron's nomination papers.
22.
Grant Shapps was a member of the Public Administration Select Committee between May 2005 and February 2007.
23.
Grant Shapps was opposed to the UK's withdrawal from the European Union prior to the 2016 referendum and voted Remain.
24.
However, following the referendum, Grant Shapps announced he would support the result and vote to trigger Article 50.
25.
Grant Shapps called on other Remain supporting MPs to do the same, arguing that voting down Article 50 to prevent Brexit would be "creating a situation which no-one wants be it MPs, voters or business" and that Parliament would contradict the fact it had granted the public a referendum on Britain's EU membership if it was not prepared to respect the result.
26.
In October 2017, Grant Shapps called for Theresa May's resignation, saying that the party could not "bury its head in the sand" in the wake of the June election.
27.
In June 2007, Grant Shapps became Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning.
28.
Grant Shapps was Shadow Housing Minister during the period of the last four Labour government housing ministers.
29.
In May 2008, Grant Shapps was cited as one of several shadow ministers who had received cash from firms linked to their portfolios.
30.
In early 2010 Grant Shapps published a series of six speeches in a pamphlet called "Home Truths".
31.
Grant Shapps chaired the Cross-Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness which includes ministers from eight Government departments.
32.
Grant Shapps introduced the New Homes Bonus which rewarded councils for building more homes.
33.
At the 2011 party conference, Grant Shapps backed the expansion of right to buy with the income being spent on replacing the sold housing with new affordable housing on a one-for-one basis.
34.
In September 2012, Grant Shapps was appointed Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party in Cameron's first major reshuffle.
35.
That November, Grant Shapps hired political strategist Lynton Crosby to provide strategic advice and run the 2015 election campaign, and ended his tenure after the 2015 general election.
36.
In March 2013, Grant Shapps defended the Welfare Reform Act 2012 saying his own children share a bedroom.
37.
In October 2013, Grant Shapps told The Daily Telegraph that the BBC could forfeit the right to its licence fee if it did not resolve its "culture of waste and secrecy".
38.
Grant Shapps suggested that the organisation was biased against the Conservative Party, saying it did not "apply fairness in both directions" and that there was a "question of credibility for the organisation".
39.
Grant Shapps's comments sparked a vigorous response from a former BBC Director General Greg Dyke who said that "politicians shouldn't define partiality".
40.
In March 2014, Grant Shapps tweeted support of the 2014 budget as supporting ordinary people.
41.
Opponents criticised Grant Shapps of being patronising to working people by believing their pastimes were limited to bingo and beer, and it drew critical media coverage in The Guardian.
42.
Grant Shapps stated that he had edited it to make it more accurate.
43.
Grant Shapps denied the allegations; the Daily Telegraph claimed his accuser was a "Liberal Democrat activist".
44.
On 11 May 2015, Grant Shapps was sacked from the Cabinet, which he had attended as Conservative Party co-chairman and Minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office, and appointed as Minister of State at the Department for International Development.
45.
On 28 November 2015, Grant Shapps stood down as minister of state due to allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party.
46.
Grant Shapps had appointed Clarke to head his party's RoadTrip 2015 campaign in January 2015.
47.
Grant Shapps resigned from OpenBrix and from his position as chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on blockchain which he had founded.
48.
Grant Shapps was given Cabinet responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse.
49.
Grant Shapps was accused by Andy McDonald MP, Shadow Transport Secretary, of "putting his hobbyhorse aviation ahead of the greater good" at a time when the CAA was involved in Brexit planning, Heathrow Airport expansion, and dealing with the collapse of Thomas Cook Group.
50.
Grant Shapps was later accused by MPs Sarah Olney and Grahame Morris of undermining the CAA by registering his private, UK-based plane in the USA instead of the UK, while Transport Secretary.
51.
Grant Shapps set up a scheme, offering rebates to pilots who purchase anti-collision "electronic conspicuity" devices used to detect positions of other aircraft in the air.
52.
Grant Shapps announced his campaign for leadership of the Conservative Party, following the resignation of Boris Johnson, on 9 July 2022.
53.
Grant Shapps was appointed Home Secretary on 19 October 2022 following the resignation of Suella Braverman.
54.
Grant Shapps was appointed business secretary on 25 October 2022 by Rishi Sunak after the resignation of former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg while Suella Braverman returned to the position of Home Secretary.
55.
Grant Shapps' newly formed ministry had been formed from responsibilities taken from his previous role.
56.
Grant Shapps was the first holder of the role of Energy Secretary since Amber Rudd in 2016.
57.
On 31 August 2023, Grant Shapps was appointed Secretary of State for Defence, replacing Ben Wallace.
58.
In 1999 Grant Shapps was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, recovering from the cancer by the following year.
59.
Grant Shapps is Jewish: in a 2010 interview with The Jewish Chronicle, he stated that he follows Jewish traditions but personally considers himself to be an agnostic and an indifferentist.
60.
On 11 April 2025, Grant Shapps was Knighted in Rishi Sunak's Resignation Honours List.
61.
Grant Shapps was sworn of the Privy Council on 21 July 2010 at Buckingham Palace, giving him the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life.