Chris Grayling
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (September 2010) |
Chris Grayling | |
---|---|
Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions | |
Assumed office 13 May 2010 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Jim Knight (Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform) |
Shadow Home Secretary | |
In office 19 January 2009 – 11 May 2010 | |
Leader | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Dominic Grieve |
Succeeded by | Alan Johnson |
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions | |
In office 2 July 2007 – 19 January 2009 | |
Leader | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Philip Hammond |
Succeeded by | Theresa May |
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport | |
In office 6 December 2005 – 2 July 2007 | |
Leader | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Tim Yeo |
Succeeded by | Theresa Villiers |
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons | |
In office 10 May 2005 – 6 December 2005 | |
Leader | Michael Howard |
Preceded by | Oliver Heald |
Succeeded by | Theresa May |
Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell | |
Assumed office 7 June 2001 | |
Preceded by | Archie Hamilton |
Majority | 16,447 (33.0%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Marylebone, London, England | 1 April 1962
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse | Susan Clare Dillistone |
Alma mater | Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge |
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Grayling (born 1 April 1962) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell. Until the 2010 general election, he was Shadow Home Secretary, but following the formation of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, he was appointed as Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions[1]
Early life
Chris Grayling was born in London and grew up in Buckinghamshire.
Education
Grayling was educated at The Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, followed by Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1984.
Life and career
Grayling joined BBC News in 1985 as a trainee, becoming a producer in 1986. He left the BBC in 1988 to join Channel 4 as an editor on its Business Daily programme. He rejoined the BBC in 1991 as a business development manager on BBC Select. On leaving the BBC in 1993, he ran several television production companies, including managing the corporate communications division of Workhouse Ltd from 1992-5 and SSVC Group in Gerrards Cross from 1995-7. He became a management consultant in 1997 with Burson Marsteller, where he remained until his election to Westminster.
Prior to joining the Conservative Party, Grayling was a member of the Social Democratic Party, along with a number of other Cameron frontbenchers.[2]
Councillor
Grayling was selected to contest the Labour-held marginal seat of Warrington South at the 1997 general election, but was defeated by Labour candidate Helen Southworth by 10,807 votes. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Merton in 1998 and remained on the council until 2002.
Member of Parliament
He was elected to the House of Commons for the Surrey seat of Epsom and Ewell at the 2001 general election following the retirement of the veteran Tory MP Archie Hamilton. Grayling held the seat with a majority of 10,080 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on 25 June 2001.[3] In the constituency, he is praised for his long-running campaign to retain the local Epsom Hospital's emergency department.
Shadow Cabinet
He served as a member of the environment, transport and the regions select committee from 2001 until he was promoted to the Opposition Whips' Office by Iain Duncan Smith in 2002, moving to become a spokesman on health later in the year. He became a spokesman on education and skills by Michael Howard in 2003, and following the 2005 general election he became a member of Howard's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, and since the election of David Cameron as the leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005 he has served as the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. In June 2007, he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, a post he held until January 2009 when he became Shadow Home Secretary.
Expenses claims
Between 2001 and 2009,[4] Grayling claimed for a flat in Pimlico, close to the House of Commons, despite having a constituency home less than 17 miles away[5] and owning two buy to let properties in Wimbledon.[6] Grayling claimed over £100,000 for the flat between 2001 and 2007.[7] The Daily Mirror reported that Grayling would benefit from the increase in the price of the flat, at least £100,000.[7] Grayling says he uses the flat when "working very late" because he needs to "work very erratic and late hours most days when the House of Commons is sitting."[8]
During the Parliamentary expenses scandal, The Daily Telegraph reported that Grayling refitted and redecorated the flat in 2005 at a cost of thousands of pounds. The newspaper alleged Grayling "spread the cost over two years" by submitting receipts in both 2005-06 and 2006–07, avoiding the upper limit for expense claims.[5] Grayling said that both the water and electrical systems failed "leaving the place needing a major overhaul".[6]
Comparing Moss Side to 'The Wire'
Chris Grayling's comments in August 2009, comparing Moss Side to the Baltimore set TV series The Wire met with an angry response in Manchester, from locals and the police.[9] Having been out on patrol for a day with the police, observing the results of a shooting at a house, he described himself as having witnessed an "urban war" and said, "It’s the world of the drama series The Wire".[10] Police responded that gang related shootings in Greater Manchester had fallen by 82 percent on the previous year, and that to speak of "urban war" was "sensationalistic".[9] They said that he had not taken account of, or appeared to want to learn from, their widely admired success in reducing gun crime in the area through pursuing a multi agency approach to the problem.[9][10] Local councillor Roy Walters complained of the Moss Side unfairly being a "negative target" due to historical associations[9] Sticking by his comments, he said, "I didn't say Moss Side equals Baltimore. What I said is that we have in Moss Side symptoms of a gang conflict in this country which I find profoundly disturbing".[11] Baltimore, with a population of about 600,000, was noted as having 191 gun related murders in the past year, in comparison to Moss Side, population 11,000, which had none.[9]
General Sir Richard Dannatt
On 7 October 2009 he was asked by the BBC about a Conservative Party plan to offer General Sir Richard Dannatt an advisory role. He, thinking it was a Labour appointment, said he hoped it was not a "political gimmick", and said "We've seen too many appointments in this government of external people where it's all been about Gordon Brown's PR.". When he realized he had misheard the question, and that it was a possible appointment of his own party, he said he was "really delighted" with the idea, adding "It's a bit embarrassing really because I would have liked to give General Dannatt a more enthusiastic welcome." [12]
Statistics controversy
Grayling has come under fire as Shadow Home Secretary for allegedly "fiddling" statistics.[13] In February 2010, Grayling's office issued press releases to every constituency in the UK claiming that crime had "risen sharply" in the UK. However, he failed to take into account the more rigorous system for recording crime. The chairman of The UK Statistics Authority, Sir Michael Scholar, said that the figures Grayling was using were "likely to mislead the public" and "likely to damage public trust in official statistics".[14] Scholar further added that reliable statistics showed that there had not been an increase in crime during Labour's period in office.[15]
Gay couples in B&Bs controversy
In March 2010, Grayling was secretly recorded telling the thinktank Centre for Policy Studies that owners of bed and breakfasts should have the right to turn away gay couples.[16] Grayling said:
"I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."[17]
When the recording was released by The Observer on 3 April 2010,[18] Grayling's comments caused uproar,[19] with Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, saying that this position would be illegal and "very alarming to a lot of gay people who may have been thinking of voting Conservative".[19] Lord Mandelson, the most senior gay minister in the government, said that the comment showed that the Conservative party had not changed, that "when the camera is on they say one thing, but when the camera is off they say another".[20] There have since been growing calls for Grayling to resign.[21][22] Conservative party leader David Cameron was subsequently urged to "back or sack" Grayling,[23] with gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell saying that "Cameron's silence is worrying. Many voters – gay and straight – will be disturbed by his failure to swiftly disown Grayling's support for homophobic discrimination. What does this say about the sincerity and seriousness of his commitment to gay equality?"[24] A poll for the website pinknews.co.uk released on 5 April[25] found that support for the Conservatives in the LGBT community had fallen drastically since Grayling's comment.[26] Author Douglas Murray has dubbed Grayling "a political buffoon, unsure of what he is saying and with little idea of how to say it."[27] Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, founder of "LGBTory", a gay rights group that campaigns for the Conservatives, announced that she would be voting for Labour, not the Conservatives, in response to Grayling's comment. She said, "I feel guilty because as a gay woman affected by LGBT rights I am on record saying you should vote Conservative, and I want to reverse that. I want to go on record to say don't vote Conservative. I'd go as far to say that I'll vote Labour at this general election."[28] Beaumont-Bott was joined in defecting from the Conservatives to Labour a week later by prominent gay rights campaigner David Heathcote.[29]
Grayling apologised on 9 April, saying "I am sorry if what I said gave the wrong impression, I certainly didn't intend to offend anyone... I voted for gay rights, I voted for this particular measure." On the 12 April edition of The Daily Politics, presenter Andrew Neil claimed the programme makers had been unable to contact Grayling about an appearance and suggested that he had gone to ground since his comments were published.[30] Since the start of the 2010 general election campaign on 6 April, Grayling has been "hidden away" by the Conservatives, making very few public appearances.[31][32][33][34] During the launch of the Labour Party's "LGBT Manifesto" on 15 April, Deputy Leader Harriet Harman renewed calls for Grayling to be sacked, saying "We don't want to wake up and find we have a homophobic home secretary. David Cameron should have sacked him as soon as he said that."[35] It is unclear whether his remarks were the reason that David Cameron chose to appoint Theresa May as Home Secretary in his new cabinet, rather than Grayling who held the position in the Shadow Cabinet; Grayling was not given any cabinet post, as had been predicted by some media commentators prior to the election.[36] In November 2010, Grayling was given the Bigot of the Year for 2010 in the Stonewall Awards.[37]
Privy Council
He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010.[38]
Personal life
In April 1987 Grayling married Susan Clare Dillistone in Surrey and they have a daughter, Laura (born December 1992), and a son, Matthew (born August 1996). He supports Manchester United, and can boast that he once hit a four off the Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee.[39]
Publications
- The Bridgewater Heritage: The Story of Bridgwater Estates by Chris Grayling, 1983, Bridgewater Estates PLC
- A Land Fit for Heroes: Life in England After the Great War by Christopher Grayling, 1985, Buchan & Enright ISBN 0-907675-68-9
- Holt's: The Story of Joseph Holt by Christopher Grayling, 1985, Joseph Holt PLC
- Just Another Star?: Anglo-American Relations Since 1945 by Christopher Grayling and Christopher Langdon, 1987, Virgin Books ISBN 0-245-54603-0
- Insight Guide Waterways of Europe contribution by Chris Grayling, 1989, Apa Publications ISBN 0-88729-825-7
See also
References
- ^ "Her Majesty's Government". Number10.gov.uk. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2010.
- ^ "Are there more ex-SDP members on the Tory front-bench than the Lib Dem front-bench?". Libdemvoice.org. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster (25 June 2001). "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 25 Jun 2001 (pt 20)". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Swaine, Jon (12 May 2009). "Chris Grayling to stop claiming second home allowances: MPs' expenses". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ a b Watt, Holly (22 February 2006). "Daily Telegraph: Chris Grayling (11 May 2009)". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
- ^ a b Grayling, Chris (May 2009). "MPs Expenses - May 2009". Grayling's website. Retrieved 1 August 2009. [dead link]
- ^ a b Moss, Vincent (21 February 2009). "Top Tory claims £100,000 for flat he is 'rarely seen in'". Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ Grayling, Chris (January 2008). "MPs Expenses - January 2008". Grayling's website. Retrieved 1 August 2009. [dead link]
- ^ a b c d e Osuh, Chris (26 August 2009). "Grayling's comments on Moss Side condemned". Manchester Evening News. Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
- ^ a b Osuh, Chris (25 August 2009). "Top Tory compares Moss Side to The Wire". Manchester Evening News. Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
- ^ No, author (25 August 2009). "Anger at Tory's Wire comparison". BBC News. Retrieved 12 December 2009.
{{cite news}}
:|first=
has generic name (help) [dead link] - ^ "Grayling laughs off Dannatt gaffe". BBC News. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2009.
- ^ McSmith, Andy (5 February 2010). "Lies, damn lies and Tory crime statistics". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- ^ Doughty, Steve (5 February 2010). "Tories accused of fiddling violent crime statistics to show increase under Labour". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- ^ "Political row over violent crime figures 'damaging public trust'". Daily Mail. London. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
- ^ BBC News, 4 April 2010, Grayling suggests B&Bs should be able to bar gay guests
- ^ The Observer, 3 April 2010, Secret tape reveals Tory backing for ban on gays
- ^ The Observer, 3 April 2010, Listen to the secret recording: Top Tory backs bar on gays
- ^ a b The Guardian, 3 April 2010, Secret tape reveals Tory backing for ban on gays
- ^ The Times, 4 April 2010, Senior Tory Chris Grayling attacked for gaffe over gays in B&Bs
- ^ The Daily Mail, 4 April 2010, Top Tory Chris Grayling urged to resign after backing B&B ban for gays on secret tape
- ^ The Morning Star, 4 April 2010, Pressure grows on gay-bashing Tory
- ^ Daily Telegraph, 4 April 2010, David Cameron urged to act over Chris Grayling's 'anti-gay' comments
- ^ The Guardian, 4 April 2010, Chris Grayling reveals the real Tories
- ^ Pink News, 5 April 2010, Exclusive: Cameron and Grayling gay gaffes cause Conservative popularity among LGBT community to plunge
- ^ Pink News, 5 April 2010, Chris Grayling: Support for Conservatives among gays drops sharply after B&B row
- ^ The Telegraph, 6 April 2010, Chris Grayling is a political buffoon. What if a B&B turned away black African Christians?
- ^ The Independent, 8 April 2010, I'm voting Labour, founder of Tory gay rights group says
- ^ Pink News, 14 April 2010, David Miliband welcomes former Tories who have quit party over gay rights
- ^ Andrew Neil (12 April 2010). The Daily Politics. The BBC.
{{cite episode}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|episodelink=
(help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=
ignored (|series-link=
suggested) (help) - ^ The Daily Mail, 9 April 2010, Has Calamity Chris been cast into the cold?
- ^ The Observer, 11 April 2010, They seek Chris here, they seek Chris there...
- ^ The Telegraph, 13 April 2010, Chris Grayling finally makes an appearance at Conservative manifesto launch
- ^ The Daily Mail, 14 April 2010, Chris Grayling's gaffe over gays comes back to bite Tories as Labour unveils defectors
- ^ Pink News, 16 April 2010, Harman calls for sacking of Chris Grayling as she launches gay manifesto
- ^ The Guardian, 14 April 2010, David Cameron's cabinet: who's in and who's out?
- ^ Writer, Staff (12 October 2010). "Corrie, John Partridge, The Times, Martina Navratilova – Stonewall Award Winners". Stonewall. London.
- ^ "Privy Council appointments, 9 June 2010". Privy Council. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
- ^ The Daily Politics, BBC show
External links
- Chris Grayling MP official constituency website
- Epsom and Ewell Conservatives
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
- BBC Politics page
- Video clips
- Use dmy dates from September 2010
- 1962 births
- Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs
- Councillors in Merton
- Epsom and Ewell
- Living people
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- Old Wycombiensians
- People from Marylebone
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- UK MPs 2005–2010
- UK MPs 2010–
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom