The Right Honourable Greg Knight PC MP
Greg Knight is a qualified Solicitor of the Supreme Court but is currently non-practising.
At the General Election of 2001 he was elected Conservative MP for East Yorkshire. He was re-elected for the same seat in May 2005 and May 2010. In the 2010 election he more than doubled his previous majority.
He has served previously in the House of Commons. In 1983 he became the first Conservative MP to win the Labour stronghold of Derby North, a seat he held against all predictions until the Labour landslide of 1997.
In 1989 he was appointed a Government Whip. He was promoted to Government Deputy Chief Whip in 1993.
In 1995, he was honoured by the Queen and made a Privy Councillor.
In 1996 he was promoted to Minister of State for Industry at the DTI, a position he held until the change of government at the 1997 General Election.
From 1998 to 2001, he was Vice Chairman of the Association of Conservative Parliamentary Candidates.
In October 2001, he was appointed Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and was given Front Bench responsibility for e-government issues at the Cabinet Office. In July 2003 he was made Shadow Minister for Culture.
In November 2003, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Transport.
Between July 2005 until its abolition in May 2010, he was a member of the House of Commons Modernisation Committee.
In November 2005 he gave up his position as transport spokesman to take over the chairmanship of the House of Commons Procedure Select Committee and was re-elected unopposed to this position in June 2010.
In July 2009, Greg was made one of the members of the new House of Commons Reform Committee, set up by the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to advise the House of Commons on Parliamentary reform.
He is Chairman of the Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Club. In 2007 he was named as one of the 50 most influential people worldwide in the Historic Vehicle Movement. In 2011 he was shortlisted as the ‘Industry Champion of the Year’ by the International Historic Motoring Awards, for his work in supporting the historic and classic car movement.
In 2004 he became a founding member of the world’s only Parliamentary rock band, MP4. Since then, the group has helped to raise over £800,000 for good causes.
In the 2005-10 Parliament, he served on 6 Select Committees, a feat which no other MP, of any party, has achieved.
In July 2011 he successfully piloted through Parliament his Private Member’s Bill, called the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act. The Act amends the law of succession in England and Wales where a person disclaims an inheritance; or is disqualified from receiving an inheritance by reason of the forfeiture rule. ‘It makes our law of succession fairer’, Greg said. He is one of only a small number of MPs to have succeeded in changing the law through the Private Member’s Bill procedure.
In September 2012 he resigned as Chairman of the Procedure Committee upon joining the Government as Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household and Senior Whip.
He has written scripts for radio and television and has written six books, Westminster Words, Honourable Insults, Parliamentary Sauce, Right Honourable Insults, the Ultimate Book of Naughty Graffiti and Dishonourable Insults.
Summary of Positions Held:
- MP for Derby North 1983 –1997;
- MP for East Yorkshire 2001 – ;
- PPS to the Minister of State: Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1987-88;
- PPS to the Minister of State, Department of Health 1988-89;
- Assistant Government Whip, 1989-90;
- Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, 1990-93;
- Government Deputy Chief Whip 1993-96;
- Minister of State Department of Trade and Industry 1996-97;
- Deputy Shadow Leader of the House 2002-03;
- Shadow Minister for: Culture, Media and Sport 2003;
- Shadow Minister for Environment and Transport 2003-05;
- Shadow Minister of State for Transport 2005;
- Chair, House of Commons Procedure Select Committee 2005-12;
- Senior Government Whip (Vice-Chamberlain of HM Household) 2012 -