Grant Shapps
Grant Shapps was born on September 14, 1968. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Grant Shapps
Sir Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who served in various cabinet positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2012 and 2024, lastly as Secretary of State for Defence from August 2023 to July 2024. Shapps served as Conservative Party Co-chairman from 2010 to 2012 under Cameron, Transport Secretary from 2019 to 2022 under Johnson, and briefly as Home Secretary in 2022 under Truss. Under Sunak, he served as Business Secretary, Energy Secretary and later Defence Secretary. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield from 2005 to 2024. Born in Croxley Green, Shapps attended Watford Grammar School for Boys and West Herts College. He studied Manchester Polytechnic and was national president of BBYO. He began his career as a photocopier sales representative and then worked in business, founding several of his own companies. Shapps stood as a councillor for the Manchester City Council in 1990 and then for the London Borough of Brent in 1994 but was unsuccessful both times. He stood for Parliament in 1997 for the North Southwark and Bermondsey constituency but was defeated. After an unsuccessful 2001 general election candidacy, Shapps was elected MP for Welwyn Hatfield at the 2005 general election. In 2007, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning. After the Conservative party's victory in the 2010 general election, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. In the 2012 cabinet reshuffle he was promoted to the Cabinet as Co-chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without portfolio. In May 2015, Cameron demoted him from cabinet, with Shapps being appointed Minister of State for International Development. In November 2015, he stood down from this post due to his handling of allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party. In 2019, Shapps endorsed Boris Johnson's successful 2019 Conservative leadership bid and subsequently returned to cabinet as Transport Secretary. He exercised greater influence than any of his predecessors in the position. During his tenure, he oversaw the effective nationalisation of the Northern Trains franchise, the Williams–Shapps Review to move from a rail franchise system to concessionary Great British Railways public body (from 2023), and the Integrated Rail Plan published in 2021 which set out the long-term strategy for rail in northern England and the Midlands. After the resignation of Johnson in July 2022, Shapps announced his candidacy in a leadership bid to replace Johnson, but eventually withdrew and endorsed Rishi Sunak. In September 2022, Shapps was dismissed by the government by Truss and he returned to the backbenches. The following month, Shapps was appointed Home Secretary by Truss amid a government crisis. He became the shortest-serving home secretary in British political history, holding the office for just six days before he was demoted to Business Secretary by Sunak. In the February 2023 cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Energy Secretary. Following the resignation of Ben Wallace, he was promoted to Defence Secretary in August 2023. After serving in Parliament for nineteen years, Shapps was defeated at the 2024 general election, losing his seat to the Labour party. In April 2025, Shapps was awarded a knighthood in Sunak's Resignation Honours List. Since leaving Parliament, he has remained involved in Conservative party politics, serving as co-chairman of Conservatives Together, but was reportedly blocked from restanding as a Conservative MP under the leadership of Kemi Badenoch.