Grant Shapps
Grant Shapps (born September 14, 1968, Hertfordshire) is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield in the United Kingdom, winning the seat in the 2005 election on 5 May 2005.
Shapps was born in Watford in Hertfordshire and educated at Watford Boys' Grammar, and Manchester Polytechnic where he received a HND. In 1990 he founded his own printing company PrintHouse Corporation which has grown into a successful commercial design, print & web development company. He remains its Chairman. He married Belinda in 1997 and they have three children.
Shapps was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield at the 2005 election defeating the Labour MP and then Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes (49.6%) on a 9.2% swing from Labour to Conservative, a majority of 5,946 (13.3%).
Having fought as the Conservative candidate at the 2001 election Shapps successfully established a reputation as a local campaigner and his campaign emphasised this. According to Simon Hoggart writing in The Guardian, Shapps had 22 pictures of himself in his election address. However a later Hoggart article conceded that those who pitched "person" over "party" did receive better results.
He publicly supported David Cameron's leadership bid, and signed Cameron's nomination papers. Upon Cameron's election as Party Leader he was made Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Campaigning.