Grant Shapps is a British Conservative politician born on September 14, 1968. He served as the Secretary of State for Defence from August 2023 to July 2024. Over his career, Shapps has held multiple cabinet positions including Transport Secretary, Home Secretary, Business Secretary, Energy Secretary, and Conservative Party Co-Chairman under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield from 2005 until he lost his seat in the 2024 general election
. Before politics, Shapps founded a design, print, website creation, and marketing business called PrintHouse Corporation in 1990. He studied business and finance at Manchester Polytechnic and has a Higher National Diploma. He is also known as an aviation enthusiast and has survived serious health challenges including cancer and a coma from a car accident
. Politically, Shapps was first promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 2007 and entered government in 2010 as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. He was appointed to the Cabinet as Conservative Party Co-Chairman in 2012. After a brief demotion and stepping down from a ministerial role in 2015 due to controversy over bullying allegations in the Conservative Party youth wing, he returned to senior government roles from 2019 onward. Notably, he was Transport Secretary from 2019 to 2022, during which he advanced significant rail reforms. His tenure as Home Secretary in 2022 lasted only six days, the shortest in British history. He then served as Business Secretary, Energy Secretary, and finally Defence Secretary until mid-2024
. Shapps is married with three children and comes from a Jewish family background. His brother André Shapps is a musician, and their cousin Mick Jones was a founding member of the Clash and Big Audio Dynamite
