Matthew Hancock

The Right Honourable Matthew Hancock
Minister of State for Business and Enterprise
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Michael Fallon
Minister of State for Energy
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Michael Fallon
Minister of State for Portsmouth
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Michael Fallon
Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise
In office 8 September 2013 – 15 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	John Hayes
Succeeded by	Nick Boles
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Richard Spring
Majority	13,050 (27.1%)
Personal details
Born	(1978-10-02) 2 October 1978 Chester, England
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Exeter College, Oxford Christ's College, Cambridge

Matthew John David Hancock PC^[1] (born 2 October 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk at the general election in May 2010.

Since September 2012, he has been the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for further education, skills and lifelong learning (a joint post between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education).

Early life

Exeter College, Oxford

Hancock was educated at Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, The King's School, an independent school in Chester in Cheshire, and West Cheshire College (a further education college).^[2] He gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Exeter College, University of Oxford, and a MPhil in Economics from Christ's College, Cambridge.^[2] Hancock has been a member of the Conservative Party since 1999.^[3]

Career

After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family’s computer software company,^[4] before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market.^[5] In 2005 he became an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.^[2]

He stepped down from his role with the party in February 2010 after being selected for the final six potential candidates for the West Suffolk constituency in the 2010 general election. Hancock narrowly won the selection contest, which took place in Mildenhall, after four rounds of voting, beating Natalie Elphicke by 88 votes to 81 votes in the final round of voting.^[6]

Parliament

Hancock won the West Suffolk seat with 24,312 votes, 13,050 votes ahead of Liberal Democrat candidate, Belinda Brooks-Gordon.^[7] In June, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee, the select committee responsible for overseeing government expenditures to ensure they are effective and honest.^[8]

The frequency of his appearances in the House and contributions to debates are well above average and he has voted very strongly for tuition fees, encouraging occupational pensions and raising VAT.^[9] On 26 November 2011 he was on the panel for BBC Radio 4's Any Questions.^[10]

In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by Daybreak presenter Matt Barbet after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late."^[11] Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour before to prepare for the interview. His opponent expressed surprise that "a minister whose Government berates ‘shirkers’ couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed to defend his own policy."^[11]

Beginning from October 2013, he has been promoted to Minister of State for Skills & Enterprise in a government reshuffle.

In the July 2014 cabinet reshuffle, he was promoted again, this time to Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Minister of State for Energy, and Minister of State for Portsmouth. On 27th July he announced protection for National Parks^[12] -seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election.^[13] Interviewed on the Today programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but when challenged was unable to name a single village which supported it.^[13] According to the Daily Telegraph, the UK will need an estimated 1000 such wells a year.^[13]

In July 2014, in an interview for Total Politics magazine, Hancock appeared in a photograph in which - not noticed by him or the photographer - he was standing in front of graffiti that read "Sack Cameron", supposedly in reference to the Prime Minister.^[14] In October 2014, he apologized after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers," describing his actions as a "total accident".^[15]

He has attracted controversy in his roll as Minister of State for Energy for hiring a private jet to fly back from a climate conference^[16] and accepting money^[17] from a climate change denial organization.

Personal life

He lives in the constituency in Little Thurlow^[6] with his wife Martha and daughter, Hope and his son, Ferdinand.

References

External links

• Personal website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

Cameron Cabinet Cameron Clegg Alexander Cable Carmichael Crabb Davey Duncan Smith Fallon Grayling Greening Hammond Hague Hunt Javid McLoughlin May Morgan Osborne Pickles Shapps Truss Villiers Also attending Anelay Clark Gove Hancock Letwin McVey Maude Stowell When on agenda Wright Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement Coalition government