The Break

---

By Henry Zeffman & Becky Morton & Paul SeddonChief political correspondent

Grant Shapps has been appointed as the new defence Secretary by Rishi Sunak .

He moves to the Ministry of Defence after just a few months as Energy Secretary - a new post established by the Prime Minister following The Break up of the mega-department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

This is Mr Shapps's fifth cabinet job in less than a Year . Even by The Wild standards of the Last Year in Westminster, that is quite something.

Rishi Sunak has been eager to keep the impact of the need to replace Ben Wallace as defence Secretary to a minimum. But the Prime Minister has clearly decided that appointing Mr Shapps is worth the destabilisation of having to appoint a New Energy Secretary - Mr Shapps's old job.

Why? Firstly, Mr Shapps has bags of experience. Not just on his tour of government departments in the Last Year - he has been a senior minister on and off since 2010, five years before Mr Sunak even entered parliament.

Secondly, he has been involved in the issue of the Ukraine war for some time through his energy security brief.

Finally, he is seen As One of the government's most assured and capable communicators. With an election around The Corner , that skill is clearly being prized by the PM and his team.

Despite his assured TV manner, and mainstream Conservative opinions, the Welwyn Hatfield MP is not a product of a public school and a top university, like many of his Tory colleagues.

In fact, he likes to joke that his HND qualification from the then Manchester Polytechnic stands for Have No Degree.

A married father of three and a cousin of The Clash guitarist Mick Jones , he was born in Watford and educated at The Local grammar school.

As a teenager, he was taken under The Wing of his local MP Sir Rhodes Boyson, who encouraged him to forge a career In Business before entering politics.

He went on to study business and finance at Manchester Polytechnic, But while in the US he nearly lost his life in a car Crash - at the Age Of 20 he was in a coma for almost a week.

He recovered, But just over a decade later he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. After successful chemotherapy treatment, he went into remission and made a full recovery.

He became The Conservative vice-chairman shortly after entering Parliament as MP for Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire, in 2005 - a seat he has represented ever since.

He continued to rise quickly through Westminster, and was made housing minister as part The Coalition government after the 2010 general election, working with adviser Kirstie Allsopp , from TV's Location, Location, Location.

A stint as Conservative Party chairman followed, although he has said This Was his least favourite ministerial job.

In 2012 he faced a setback when he was accused of breaching The Code of conduct for ministers and MPs, after it was revealed he wrote self-help guides for a website operated with his wife Belinda using the pseudonym " Michael Green".

He later said he had " screwed up" and admitted he had " over firmly" denied he had continued his work as a web marketing expert during his time as an MP.

Then in 2015, amid claims he failed to act on allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party during his time As Party co-chairman.

A Remainer at the 2016 EU referendum, he was among those Tory MPs who reconciled themselves to the UK's departure, going on to describe himself as a " Brexit moderate" during negotiations.

After Four Years on the backbenches under Theresa May , he returned to The Cabinet in 2019 after backing Boris Johnson 's successful bid for the Tory leadership.

He was given The Job of transport Secretary , a role Mr Shapps - a qualified Pilot - Embraced with zeal.

During his Time In The Role , he developed plans for a new public body to oversee the railways, teaming up with follow rail enthusiast and ex-Tory MP Michael Portillo to promote a competition to pick The Host city.

Mr Shapps developed a reputation as a reliable media performer, and was regularly sent out to defend the government on the airwaves during the periods of crisis that frequently engulfed Mr Johnson's tenure.

He was sacked from The Cabinet by Liz Truss , after supporting her rival Mr Sunak in the summer leadership contest.

However, he made an extraordinary comeback only Six Weeks later, when he was brought back as home Secretary in the dying days of Ms Truss's premiership.

His appointment was seen as an Olive Branch to the centre-right of The Party - But also raised eyebrows, given he had been criticising Ms Truss's tax plans only days previously.

Known for his skills in monitoring political rebellions, he had also been famous at Westminster for keeping a spreadsheet on his Galaxy Fold phone, containing hundreds of quotes from Tory MPs on their doubts about Ms Truss as Prime Minister .

As it happened, he was home Secretary for just Six Days before Ms Truss left office.

When Mr Sunak took over as Prime Minister he was moved to business Secretary and brought his typical enthusiasm to The Role .

In December, he helped launch a campaign advising The Public How To save money on their energy bills, including through a cheesy video featuring an Elf on the Shelf scuppering his attempts to cut energy usage in his own home.

This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. The Bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read and before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue'.

The Bbc is not responsible for the content of external sites.

He was the subject of more ridicule recently, when it emerged a photo posted on his Twitter account to celebrate a rocket launch in Cornwall had erased former-Prime Minister Boris Johnson , who was also on the original visit.

Mr Shapps later apologised for The Incident , saying Mr Johnson had been " inadvertently airbrushed" out of the picture by one of his team.

He'll now be responsible for the UK's armed forces, defence planning, strategic international partnerships and UK's response to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Related Topics

Source of news: bbc.com