Grant Shapps

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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%).

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.

[edit] Business Interests

In 1990 Grant Shapps founded Print House Corporation, a design, print and website creation businesses sited in London. He remains the Chief Executive Officer but reportedly takes only a limited interest in the business.

In 2000 Grant Shapps set up How To Corp, an internet marketing business. Grant Shapps uses the name Michael Green in this business and his real name is not found on any of its literature, although he has declared the directorship in the register of MPs' interests. Grant Shapps said that the reason for the use of Michael Green is "Shapps is such an unusual name. It would be very confusing if people came across this website when they were looking for my political views on something like global warming."

It should also be noted that while How To Corp appears to be an American business, it is actually an British registered company.