Grant Shapps has taken a prime seat in British Prime Minister Liz Truss's Cabinet after the departure of Suella Braverman as home secretary.
The move brings a Tory beast on to the embattled prime minister's side — one who could otherwise help bring about her removal from No 10.
After launching a short-lived Tory leadership bid of his own, Mr Shapps became a major backer of Ms Truss’s rival, Rishi Sunak, in the contest over the summer.
The former transport secretary is said to have recorded Tory colleagues’ doubts about Ms Truss in a running spreadsheet, wielded on a pricey foldable smartphone.
He also caused a headache for Ms Truss when he joined a revolt against her tax cuts, saying he was “profoundly” concerned about the plans and branding her decision to scrap the 45p top rate — which she has since reversed — as “politically tin-eared”.
He spent the Conservative Party conference earlier this month saying that Tory MPs would not “sit on their hands” in ousting Ms Truss without improvement.
Only two nights before his appointment, Mr Shapps told a theatre audience that Ms Truss had a “Mount Everest to climb” to remain in power and that her decision to surround herself largely with those who supported her campaign meant her base was too “narrow” to successfully lead the party.
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned from her position. Here, 'The National' takes a look at the candidates vying to replace her, including former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, above. PA -
Britain's Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt. AFP -
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Reuters -
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. EPA -
Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. AFP -
Current Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt. PA
The veteran of government is influential in the Conservative Party, having been instrumental in a rebellion against Theresa May and Boris Johnson’s path to power.
He was rewarded with a Cabinet role by Mr Johnson when he took office in 2019, which he held until Ms Truss sent him to the backbenches along with other backers of Mr Sunak.
The plane-obsessed Mr Shapps oversaw the transport department during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the ensuing airport chaos as travel resumed. He also faced criticism for failing to engage with unions over strikes.
But the Johnson ally was seen as a competent public performer and often sent out to do the media rounds by the then-prime minister.
With his local grammar school education and a rock star relative who played guitar for The Clash, the 53-year-old Welwyn Hatfield MP has a slightly different background from many of his contemporaries at the top of the Conservative Party.
He has had a chequered history with the Tories and also posed problems for David Cameron with a series of scandals leading up to his resignation as a minister in November 2015.
Liz Truss's political career — in pictures
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New Conservative Party leader and Britain's Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss delivers a speech after being announced the winner of the Tory Party leadership contest in central London on September 5, 2022. Ms Truss is the UK's third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. AFP -
Liz Truss during a hustings event in Darlington in August 2022. Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak are awaiting the results of a poll of Conservative Party members deciding which of them has been selected as the new party leader, and next prime minister. PA -
Liz Truss playing pool during a visit to the Onside Future Youth Zone in London in August 2022. PA -
Boris Johnson and Ms Truss arriving for an extraordinary summit at Nato headquarters in Brussels, in March 2022. AFP -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ms Truss arrive for talks in Moscow in February 2022. AP -
Ms Truss in Red Square during a visit to Moscow in February 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss meeting European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic (not seen) for talks in central London on the Northern Ireland Protocol on 11th February 2022. PA -
Ms Truss with Marise Payne, the Australian minister of foreign affairs, at Government House in Sydney, Australia, in January 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss hosts Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic at Chevening House in January 2022 to discuss the Northern Ireland protocol. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss visits British troops in Estonia as they operate alongside other Nato troops in Tapa in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss walks through the old town in Tallinn, Estonia, in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss greeting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, in November 2021. PA -
Ms Truss at the Red Fort in New Delhi during a trip to India in October 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
The British foreign secretary on the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City, during a trip to Mexico in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Queen Elizabeth II greeting Ms Truss at a reception for international business and investment leaders at Windsor Castle in October 2021. PA -
Liz Truss with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in New York, in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss on a morning jog over Brooklyn Bridge in New York in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Former Chancellor Philip Hammond, centre, holding his red ministerial box outside 11, Downing Street, flanked by Treasury colleagues Ms Truss and Mel Stride in October 2018. PA -
Ms Truss, then secretary of state for justice, being escorted around HMP Brixton by prison governor David Bamford in November 2016. PA -
Ms Truss as she became the first woman ever to hold the role of Lord Chancellor, arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice before being installed in July 2016. PA -
In April 2016, the former environment secretary Liz Truss listening to former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne (not seen) during his speech at the National Composites Centre in Bristol. PA -
When she was environment minister, Ms Truss visited the bridge over the River Wharfe in Tadcaster, which collapsed after heavy flooding in December 2015. Getty Images -
Addressing the Conservative party conference in Birmingham in 2014 when she was secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. Getty Images -
Mr Truss on the Sawnnington Farm to Fork stand at the Norfolk Food Festival at the Houses Of Parliament in October 2011. PA -
Conservative Parliamentary candidate for South-West Norfolk Elizabeth Truss, while canvassing in the village of West Walton during the 2010 General Election campaign. PA -
The former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, centre, speaking at the launch Reform's Lawful Society report on the nature of crime and the incentives in the criminal justice system while Ms Truss looks on, in September 2008. PA -
Former Conservative Leader William Hague meeting conservative candidate for Calder valley Ms Truss, during the General Election Campaign for 2005. PA
After years of soaring through the Tory ranks, his rapid rise stalled during the 2015 general election campaign when he was accused of anonymously editing his own entry and those of other Conservative politicians on internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
Then-prime minister Mr Cameron stood by him and Mr Shapps called the allegations “bonkers”. Wikipedia later found no definitive evidence linking Mr Shapps to the account used to amend the entries.
But the damage was done and Mr Shapps was removed as party chairman and made a minister at the Department for International Development — a move widely seen as a demotion.
He was forced to resign from the post after six months when it surfaced that he had been warned about bullying among young party activists almost a year before 21-year-old Elliott Johnson took his own life.
Mr Shapps denied being informed about any allegations of bullying, sexual abuse or blackmail, but quit his post, saying that “responsibility should rest somewhere”.
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Months before the Wikipedia scandal, Mr Shapps was accused of having breached the codes of conduct for ministers and MPs when it was revealed that he held a second job after entering Parliament.
He was exposed as having continued working as a marketer of get-rich-quick schemes under the pseudonym Michael Green.
Mr Shapps was politically ambitious from a young age.
While his family leaned more towards music — brother Andre Shapps played keyboards with post-punk band Big Audio Dynamite and his cousin, Mick Jones, was a founding member of The Clash — Mr Shapps found his passion in politics, becoming national president of the Jewish youth organisation BBYO.
In his early 20s, he set up a marketing and printing business before contesting his first parliamentary seat in 1997. He eventually ousted Labour’s Melanie Johnson in 2005 to become MP for Welwyn Hatfield, being elected the Tory Party’s vice chairman the same year.
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In 2007, he became shadow housing minister and, following the 2010 general election — in which he retained his seat with a majority of more than 17,000 — he served as minister of state for housing and local government, being appointed to the Privy Council that June.
In September 2012, he was appointed co-chairman of the Conservative Party and also held the position of minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office.
Born in Hertfordshire, Mr Shapps grew up in the area and was educated at Watford Grammar School and Manchester Polytechnic.
He is married with three children.
