Andrew Griffith

This article is about the MP for Arundel and South Downs. For the MP for Burton, see Andrew Griffiths (politician). For the American actor, see Andy Griffith.

Barbara Griffith

​

(m. 1997)​

Andrew Griffith MP
Official portrait, 2024
Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 November 2024
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Nottingham
Website	www.andrewgriffith.uk

Andrew John Griffith (born 23 February 1971) ^[1] is a British Conservative Party politician and former senior media executive who has been Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade since November 2024 ^[2] and Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs since 2019. ^[3]

He was Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from July to November 2024. ^[4] and had previously been Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation from November 2023. ^[5] He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports from July 2022 until September 2022, ^{[6] [7]} as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit from February 2022 to July 2022, and as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2022 to 2023. ^{[8] [9]}

Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, Griffith served as the Chief financial officer and Chief operating officer of Sky, as well as Chairman of Just Eat.

Early life and education

Andrew Griffith was born on 23 February 1971 in Bexleyheath. He grew up in Bromley and attended St Mary & St Joseph's School, a state comprehensive school in Sidcup, before studying law at Nottingham University from 1989 to 1992. ^[10] He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1996, becoming FCA.

Business career

Griffith first worked for Rothschild & Co and PwC, before joining Sky in 1999 as a financial analyst. ^[11] By 2008, he rose to become Sky's chief financial officer, joining the board of directors, and at the time of his appointment was the youngest financial director amongst the FTSE 100. ^[12] In March 2016 he also took on the role of Sky group chief operating officer. ^[13] During his time in this role, he helped set up a free school in Hounslow named Bolder Academy, with Sky providing funding and exclusive access to its facilities, including coding classes taught by Sky employees. ^[14]

When Comcast acquired Sky in 2018, Griffith earned about £17m from the sale of shares. ^[15]

In April 2014, Griffith joined the board of Just Eat as a senior non-executive director, a post which he held in combination with his full-time role at Sky. In 2017, Just Eat was hit by several challenges, losing its non-executive chairman to poor health, its chief executive officer stepping down and the Competition and Markets Authority reviewing Just Eat's acquisition of competitor Hungryhouse. During this period, Griffith took on the role of chairman. ^[16]

In 2018, Griffith won The Sunday Times' NED Award for FTSE all-share following his work as senior non-executive director and Chairman at Just Eat. ^[17]

He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and was co-chairman of its 2017 Cambridge convention. ^[18]

Political career

Griffith stood as the Conservative candidate in Corby at the 2001 general election, coming second with 37.2% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour and Co-operative MP Phil Hope. ^[19] At the 2005 general election, Griffith again stood in Corby, coming second with 40% of the vote again behind Phil Hope. ^[20]

Griffith is a former chairman of the advisory board at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank. ^[21]

Boris Johnson used Griffith's £9.5 million townhouse as his leadership election campaign headquarters. ^{[22] [23]} In 2019, Griffith stepped down from his roles at Sky and Just Eat to become Johnson's chief business adviser, based at 10 Downing Street, ^{[24] [25]} taking on the role in July 2019. ^[15]

Parliamentary career

In government

Griffith was elected as Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs at the 2019 general election with 57.9% of the vote and a majority of 22,521 votes. ^[26] He stood down from his role as the Prime Minister's chief business adviser upon his election to Parliament. ^{[27] [28]}

On 10 November 2020, he was appointed as a member of the Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel, to provide independent expertise and advice as part of the Government's strategic review of public service broadcasting. ^[29] A week later, on 17 November 2020, Griffith was appointed by Boris Johnson to be the UK's Net Zero Business Champion, a role designed to support UK businesses to make plans to become net zero by 2050 in the run up to the UN Climate Summit at Glasgow in November 2021. ^[30]

On 17 September 2021, Griffith was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, alongside Sarah Dines, in the second Cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry. ^[31]

Griffith is the founder of and, until his appointment as Minister, co-chaired with the Lord Rees of Ludlow, Astronomer Royal, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies. ^[32]

On 3 February 2022, Griffith became Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office (Minister for Policy) and Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit, ^[33] following the resignation of Munira Mirza. ^[34]

On 6 June 2022, after a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Boris Johnson was called, Griffith announced that he would be supporting the Prime Minister. ^[35]

Griffith was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Trade) in the Department for International Trade on 8 July 2022. ^[36]

On 7 September 2022, he was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury. ^[37]

Following the succession of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister, Griffith was appointed as Economic Secretary to the Treasury on 27 October 2022. ^[37] In this role, he worked on the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 and was lead Treasury Minister on the rescue of Silicon Valley Bank UK, the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, and during the ‘LDI’ crisis. ^[38]

During Sunak's November 2023 reshuffle, Griffith was promoted to Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. ^[37]

In opposition

At the 2024 general election, Griffith was re-elected as MP for Arundel and South Downs with a decreased vote share of 40.2% and a decreased majority of 12,134. ^[39]

Following the Conservative Party's defeat in the election and the subsequent formation of the Starmer ministry, Griffith was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology in Rishi Sunak's caretaker Shadow Cabinet.

Griffith was amongst the first public backers of Kemi Badenoch in the 2024 Conservative Leadership contest. ^[40]

Personal life

Griffith married Barbara, a volunteer charity worker, in 1997; they have a son and daughter. As a businessman, he resided at Putney, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. ^[10] Griffith also has a residence in his constituency of Arundel and South Downs ^[41] since 2010. He divides his time between living there and in London. ^[42]

His father John, an IT salesman, ^[10] died of COVID-19. ^[43]

He has cited Lord Young of Graffham, a long-time mentor of his, as one of his heroes ^[44]

Honours

Griffith was admitted as a freeman of the City of London on 3 September 2024 in recognition of his contribution to the UK's financial services sector. ^[45]

References

1. Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 83. ISBN   978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC   1129682574.
2. "Philp appointed shadow home secretary by Badenoch" . Retrieved 5 November 2024.
3. "Arundel & South Downs parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" . Retrieved 13 December 2019.
4. "UK politics live: Lord Cameron resigns as Rishi Sunak announces interim shadow cabinet". BBC News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
5. "Ministerial appointments: November 2023". GOV.UK. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
6. "Andrew Griffith MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
7. "Ministerial appointments: July 2022". GOV.UK. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
8. "Ministerial Appointment: 3 February 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
9. "Ministerial Appointments: October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
10. "Standing start for Sky's Andrew Griffith". Royal Television Society. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
11. "About Andrew - Andrew Griffith MP". andrewgriffithmp.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
12. Crump, Richard (1 March 2011). "The FD Interview: Andrew Griffith, BSkyB". financialdirector.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
13. Barraclough, Leo (21 March 2016). "Sky Finance Chief Andrew Griffith Adds Role of Chief Operating Officer". Variety. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
14. "New free schools to open across England". gov.uk.
15. Pickard, Jim; Thomas, Daniel (23 July 2019). "Boris Johnson hires Sky's Andrew Griffith as business adviser". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
16. Merdle, Richard (25 March 2018). "NED Award for FTSE all-share: Andrew Griffith juggled jobs to deliver in a crisis". The Times. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
17. "NED Award for FTSE all-share: Andrew Griffith juggled jobs to deliver in a crisis" . Retrieved 30 October 2024.
18. "Andrew Griffith was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer in March 2016". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
19. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
20. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
21. D'Arcy, Mark (20 February 2020). "The week ahead in Parliament". BBC News. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
22. Mason, Rowena; Syal, Rajeev (19 July 2019). "Boris Johnson uses Sky executive's townhouse as campaign HQ". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 28 February 2020.
23. "Boris Johnson appoints Sky senior executive as business adviser after being lent his £9.5m Westminster flat" . The Independent. 23 July 2019. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
24. Syal, Rajeev; Mason, Rowena; O'Carroll, Lisa (23 July 2019). "Sky executive among Johnson's first appointments". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 13 December 2019.
25. "Just Eat director steps down after PM appointment". Insider Media. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
26. beta.horsham.gov.uk https://web.archive.org/web/20191115001924/https://beta.horsham.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/76253/SPN-COMBINED-ASD-2019.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2019.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
27. "Andrew Griffith MP (@griffitha)". Twitter. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020. Previously No10 Business adviser.
28. Griffith, Andrew (18 May 2020). "Andrew Griffith: A blanket and indefinite 14-day quarantine would put our aviation sector at risk". Conservative Home. Retrieved 11 June 2020. Andrew Griffith is MP for Arundel & South Downs and is the former Chief Business Adviser to Boris Johnson.
29. "Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel". GOV.UK. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
30. "UK appoints champion to spur business on to net zero emissions". GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
31. "Ministerial appointments: September 2021". 16 September 2021.
32. "APPG for Dark Skies". APPG for Dark Skies. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
33. "gov.uk Webpage on Andrew Griffith".
34. Powling, Joshua (4 February 2022). "West Sussex MP to replace policy chief who quit over Boris Johnson's Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer". West Sussex County Times. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
35. Andrew Griffith MP [@griffitha] (6 June 2022). "Everyone serious about fixing the big challenges our country faces should give the PM their support. The last thing anyone needs is a distracting, divisive and destructive leadership contest. We need to focus on getting on with the job and serving the country" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
36. "Andrew Griffith MP Biography Gov.uk".
37. "Gov.uk Andrew Griffith MP Biography" . Retrieved 30 October 2024.
38. "Andrew Griffith MP awarded Freedom of the City of London".
39. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/constituencies/E14001067 ^{[ bare URL ]}
40. Griffith, Andrew (30 July 2024). "Kemi Badenoch is the straight-talking conservative who will maximise our chances of victory". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 31 October 2024.
41. "Statement of Persons Nominated, Notice of Poll and Situation of Polling Station for the Election of a Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs" (PDF).
42. The Bell Magazine (2 March 2020). "The Bell Magazine - Spring 2020".
43. Yorke, Harry (7 June 2020). "Conservative MP whose father died of coronavirus calls for lockdown to be lifted by July 4". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
44. "Meet The UK's New Space Minister" . Retrieved 30 October 2024.
45. "Andrew Griffith MP awarded Freedom of the City of London".

External links

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

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Nick Herbert	Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs 2019–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Alex Burghart Trudy Harrison	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister 2021–2022 With: Sarah Dines	Succeeded by Joy Morrissey Lia Nici James Duddridge
Office established	Minister for Policy 2022	Vacant
Preceded by Mike Freer	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports 2022	Succeeded by Marcus Fysh
Government offices
Preceded by Munira Mirza	Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit 2022	Vacant