BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Helen Grant (politician)
| Helen Grant MP | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister for Sport and Tourism | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 7 October 2013 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Hugh Robertson |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice | |
| In office 4 September 2012 – 7 October 2013 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Jonathan Djanogly |
| Succeeded by | Shailesh Vara |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Equalities | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 4 September 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | Lynne Featherstone |
| Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Ann Widdecombe |
| Majority | 5,889 (12.0%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 September 1961 Willesden, Middlesex,England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Simon Grant[1] |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Hull |
| Occupation | Solicitor |
| Website | helengrant.org |
Helen Grant (born 28 September 1961)[2] is a British Conservative Party politician and solicitor. She is the current Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald in Kent and the current Minister for Sport, Tourism & Equalities. She was elected at the2010 general election, replacing the constituency's previous incumbent, Ann Widdecombe, who had decided to step down as an MP. Grant was the first black woman to be selected to defend a Tory seat and her election made her the Conservatives' first female blackMP.[3]
Grant received her first government appointment in September 2012, when she received the dual roles of Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Under-Secretary for Women and Equalities. Grant attracted media attention in November 2012 after it emerged she was allowed to claim the maximum expenses allowed within the IPSA rules for a London flat, despite her family home being within 20 miles of London.[4][5]
Early life
Grant was born in Willesden, north London to an English mother and Nigerian father, but grew up in a single parent family after her parents separated and her father emigrated to the United States.[6] She was raised in Carlisle where she lived on the city's Raffles council estate with her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She said in a 2008 interview with the Daily Mail that she was the victim of racist bullying at school.[6] In a 2010 interview she spoke fondly of her childhood, and the house in which she grew up. "I had happy memories in that house and it gave me a good start in life, [...] There was deprivation around, there was certainly need, there was some domestic violence and there were some fights. But my memory of the square where we lived is that there was pride in people."[7]
At school she was captain of the school tennis and hockey teams, and represented Cumbria in hockey, tennis, athletics, and cross-country. She was also an under-16 judo champion for the north of England and southern Scotland. She studied law at the University of Hull, after which she planned to take specialist legal qualifications. When it appeared unlikely that her local education authority would fund a place at her preferred college, her local MP Willie Whitelaw championed her cause,[6] and she took a place at the College of Law in Guildford.
Career
Grant undertook her articles of clerkship at Cartmell, Mawson & Main solicitors in Carlisle, where she qualified as a solicitor.[3] She then joined a legal practice in Wimbledon specialising in family law. She established her own practice, Grants Solicitors, in 1996, which also specialises in family law.[8] She has subsequently said that as a practising lawyer she saw a 'huge amount' of domestic violence, and that it had a 'huge effect' on her subsequent Ministerial role.[9]
Political career
Grant joined the Labour Party in 2004 and was asked by a senior local party figure to consider becoming a local councillor, but she rejected the idea. She offered the local party the use of her company's telephones in late 2004 prior to the 2005 general election. She claimed, however, they showed little interest, and that this left her feeling disillusioned with Labour. She joined the Conservatives in 2006, and later said of her membership of Labour, "It was almost looking in the biscuit barrel, not liking the look of the biscuits, and slamming the lid shut."[8]
Grant was a non-executive director of the Croydon NHS Primary Care Trust from January 2005 to March 2007 before stepping down to concentrate on her political career.[10]
In 2006 Grant worked with Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice in the formation of Conservative policy to deal with family breakdown. Grant was one of the authors of the Social Justice Policy Group Report 'State of the Nation - Fractured Families' published in December 2006, and the follow-up solutions report 'Breakthrough Britain' published in July 2007.[10]
Parliamentary career
Grant applied to become a parliamentary candidate,[8] and was approved as a candidate in May 2006. She was selected by the Conservative Party as the prospective candidate for Maidstone and The Weald in January 2008, replacing longstanding MP Ann Widdecombe who had announced that she would be stepping down at the next general election.[6]She was the first black woman to be selected to defend a Tory seat, which at the time had a majority of 15,000.[11] She was selected as an A-List candidate and, although she was publicly supported by the sitting MP, Widdecombe criticised David Cameron's policy of ensuring 50% of the Conservatives' A-list candidates were women—a policy thought to have helped Grant win the nomination. This was quickly followed by revelations from a Sunday newspaper regarding her previous membership of Labour.[8]
Grant was elected as the Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald at the 2010 general election on 6 May 2010, achieving a reduced majority of 5,889.[12] Her election made her the Conservative Party’s first black woman MP.[3] In June 2010 she was elected to the Justice Select Committee,[13] a House of Commons select committee which oversees the policy, administration, and spending of the UK's Ministry of Justice.
On 4 September 2012 following a Government reshuffle, Grant was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, and Women and Equality.[14] She has been described as the 'Minister for Victims' of crime, and states her role as to 'look after the interests of victims and witnesses of any crime, including domestic violence, sexual violence and rape.'.[9]
On 7 October 2013, Grant was appointed Sports and Equalities minister succeeding Hugh Robertson. She was a former judo champion, and told The Independent newspaper that sport was "very much in my DNA".[15] However, the following month when quizzed by her regional news television station ITV Meridian, she failed to answer a single question correctly on the subject.[16] She retained her portfolio in the subsequent Government reshuffle.
Expenses controversy 2012
Grant attracted controversy in November 2012 when an edition of the Channel 4 documentary strand Dispatches reported that she was according to published records claiming the full £1,666.67/month[5] under MPs expenses - the maximum allowed within the IPSA rules - for a flat in London, when she has a home in Kingswood, Surrey, near Reigate.[4]Kingswood is located within a zone around London in which MPs cannot claim expenses for a London rental, but it is allowed in her case because she represents Maidstone and the Weald, which is outside the exclusion zone.[5] At that time Grant used a base bordering her constituency, where her mother lives and her son also lived while at school in Maidstone until 2013.[5] IPSA confirmed that Grant was entitled to a second-home allowance on Parliamentary expenses because her constituency was outside London, and her claim was within the rules.[5] However, Labour MP John Mann, a long standing campaigner on MPs' expenses, described the minister's actions as "outrageous" and a "farce":[5]
| “ | She is a new MP, she is meant to be one of those with a new mindset. There are loopholes in the rules which IPSA need to close, but more than that, MPs do need to abide by the spirit of the rules. It was MPs failing to abide by the spirit of the rules that caused so much outrage last time. | ” |
However, Mann's comments were countered by the MP for Reigate Crispin Blunt. Coming to her defence Mr Blunt said: "Helen has a substantial ministerial portfolio, constituents, a constituency and family responsibilities to manage. Her arrangements are not analogous to mine". "These are part of the trade-offs that MPs and ministers have to make all the time to try to meet all the competing demands on them. Frankly, I think this is a pretty cheap shot by Dispatches and I would hope you would be sympathetic to someone who has done a considerable public service, by moving from a successful professional service business into public service at significant expense to herself and her family." [17]
IPSA controversy
Grant was also involved in controversy after the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority found that the standard employment contract template for the majority of her staff had been amended although her husband, who was also employed by her, remained on an unaltered contract.[18] A member of staff requiring time off for a medical condition discovered discovered their contract had been amended to offer only two weeks' sick pay rather than the IPSA contract standard of 26 weeks.[19]
Grant initially refused to comment on the claim[19] although the Ministry of Justice stated that the changes to contracts were an attempt to provide a "fairer deal" for taxpayers.[19]IPSA stated that the contract should not have been changed.[19] Grant's husband resigned from his position after it was revealed he remained on an unaltered contract, and had known about the discrepancy for two months without informing wife.[18] It was claimed that this was due to "oversight on his part rather than design" and he had not received any benefits from remaining on the unaltered contract.[18]
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