Helen Grant (politician)
Encyclopedia
Helen Grant is a British lawyer and Conservative Party
politician. She is the current Member of Parliament
for Maidstone and The Weald in Kent
. She was elected at the 2010 general election, replacing the constituency's previous incumbent, Ann Widdecombe
, who had decided to step down as an MP. Grant was the first black female to be selected to defend a Tory seat and her election made her the Conservatives' first female Black British
MP.
to an English mother and Nigeria
n father, but grew up in a single parent family after her parents separated and her father emigrated to the United States
. 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 as the only black
resident of the estate she was the victim of racist
bullying. However, 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."
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, and she took a place at the College of Law in Guildford
where she qualified as a solicitor in 1988. She returned to Carlisle to do her articles of clerkship
at Cartmell, Mawson & Main solicitors. She later 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.
Helen 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.
in 2004 and was asked by a senior local party figure to consider becoming a local councilor 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."
Grant applied to become a parliamentary candidate, 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. She was the first black woman to be selected to defend a Tory seat, which at the time had a majority of 15,000. 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.
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.
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. Her election made her the Conservative Party’s first black woman MP. In June 2010 she was elected to the Justice Select Committee, a House of Commons select committee which oversees the policy, administration, and spending of the UK's Ministry of Justice
.
, Kent
, and Kingswood, Surrey
.
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician. She is the current Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Maidstone and The Weald in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. She was elected at the 2010 general election, replacing the constituency's previous incumbent, Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...
, who had decided to step down as an MP. Grant was the first black female to be selected to defend a Tory seat and her election made her the Conservatives' first female Black British
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
MP.
Early life and career
Grant was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to an English mother and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n father, but grew up in a single parent family after her parents separated and her father emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She was raised in Carlisle where she lived on the city's Raffles
Raffles, Cumbria
Raffles or the Raffles Estate is a suburb of Carlisle, Cumbria, United Kingdom. The estate consists mainly of council built and Housing association properties, and in 1994 had a population of 5,800...
council estate
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
with her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She said in a 2008 interview with the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
that as the only black
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
resident of the estate she was the victim of racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
bullying. However, 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."
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
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
champion for the north of England and southern Scotland. She studied law at the University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...
, 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, and she took a place at the College of Law in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
where she qualified as a solicitor in 1988. She returned to Carlisle to do her articles of clerkship
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
at Cartmell, Mawson & Main solicitors. She later joined a legal practice in Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
specialising in family law. She established her own practice, Grants Solicitors, in 1996, which also specialises in family law.
Helen Grant was a non-executive director of the Croydon NHS Primary Care Trust
NHS Croydon
NHS Croydon is the name for the National Health Service primary care trust with responsibility for the borough of Croydon, which covers parts of south west London and north Surrey. It is responsible for planning and funding healthcare, and for public health in Croydon...
from January 2005 to March 2007 before stepping down to concentrate on her political career.
Political career
Grant joined the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in 2004 and was asked by a senior local party figure to consider becoming a local councilor 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
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
. 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."
Grant applied to become a parliamentary candidate, 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
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...
who had announced that she would be stepping down at the next general election. She was the first black woman to be selected to defend a Tory seat, which at the time had a majority of 15,000. She was selected as an A-List candidate and, although she was publicly supported by the sitting MP, Widdecombe criticised David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
'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.
In 2006 Grant worked with Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
's Centre for Social Justice
Centre for Social Justice
The Centre for Social Justice is an independent, not-for-profit thinktank set up by the Rt. Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, to advance the education of the public in the subject of social justice and to promote the role of the voluntary sector...
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.
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. Her election made her the Conservative Party’s first black woman MP. In June 2010 she was elected to the Justice Select Committee, a House of Commons select committee which oversees the policy, administration, and spending of the UK's Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...
.
Personal life
Grant met her husband, Simon, in 1990, and the couple are married with two sons. She divides her time between homes in MardenMarden, Kent
Marden is a village about 13 km south of Maidstone and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the flood plain of the River Beult near Maidstone. It is on the B2079 road linking the A229 Maidstone with the A21 at Flimwell. It has its own railway...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and Kingswood, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
External links
- Helen Grant Official website
- Helen Grant at Conservatives.com