Andrew Griffith

Last updated

Barbara Griffith
​
(m. 1997)​
Andrew Griffith
MP
Portrait of Andrew Griffith (cropped).png
Official portrait, 2022
Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation
Assumed office
13 November 2023
Children2
Alma mater University of Nottingham
Website andrewgriffithmp.com

Andrew John Griffith (born 23 February 1971) [1] is a British Conservative politician and former senior media executive who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs since 2019. [2]

Contents

Griffith has been Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation since November 2023. [3] Previously he served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports from July 2022 until September 2022, [4] [5] 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. [6] [7]

Early life and education

Andrew Griffith was born on 23 February 1971 in Bexleyheath, Kent. 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. [8] 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. [9] 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. [10] In March 2016 he also took on the role of Sky group chief operating officer. [11] When Comcast acquired Sky in 2018, Griffith earned about £17m from the sale of shares. [12]

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. [13]

He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and was co-chairman of its 2017 Cambridge convention. [14]

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. [15] At the 2005 general election, Griffith again stood in Corby, coming second with 40% of the vote again behind Phil Hope. [16]

Griffith is a former chairman of the advisory board at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank. [17]

Boris Johnson used Griffith's £9.5 million townhouse as his leadership election campaign headquarters. [18] [19] 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, [20] [21] taking on the role in July 2019. [12]

Parliamentary career

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. [22] He stood down from his role as the Prime Minister's chief business adviser upon his election to Parliament. [23] [24]

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. [25] 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. [26]

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. [27]

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. [28]

On 3 February 2022, Griffith became Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office (Minister for Policy) and Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit, [29] following the resignation of Munira Mirza. [30]

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. [31]

Griffith was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Trade) in the Department for International Trade on 8 July 2022. [32]

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. [8] Griffith also has a residence in his constituency of Arundel and South Downs [33] since 2010. He divides his time between living there and in London. [34]

His father John, an IT salesman, [8] died of COVID-19. [35]

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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. ↑ "Arundel & South Downs parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" . Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "Ministerial appointments: November 2023". GOV.UK. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  4. ↑ "Andrew Griffith MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  5. ↑ "Ministerial appointments: July 2022". GOV.UK. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  6. ↑ "Ministerial Appointment: 3 February 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  7. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments: October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "Standing start for Sky's Andrew Griffith". Royal Television Society. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "About Andrew - Andrew Griffith MP". andrewgriffithmp.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  10. ↑ Crump, Richard (1 March 2011). "The FD Interview: Andrew Griffith, BSkyB". financialdirector.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  11. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (21 March 2016). "Sky Finance Chief Andrew Griffith Adds Role of Chief Operating Officer". Variety. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  12. 1 2 Pickard, Jim; Thomas, Daniel (23 July 2019). "Boris Johnson hires Sky's Andrew Griffith as business adviser". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ "Andrew Griffith was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer in March 2016". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  15. ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  17. ↑ D'Arcy, Mark (20 February 2020). "The week ahead in Parliament". BBC News. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ "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.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ "Just Eat director steps down after PM appointment". Insider Media. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  22. ↑ 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)
  23. ↑ "Andrew Griffith MP (@griffitha)". Twitter. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020. Previously No10 Business adviser.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ "Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel". GOV.UK. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  26. ↑ "UK appoints champion to spur business on to net zero emissions". GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  27. ↑ "Ministerial appointments: September 2021". 16 September 2021.
  28. ↑ "APPG for Dark Skies". APPG for Dark Skies. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  29. ↑ "gov.uk Webpage on Andrew Griffith".
  30. ↑ 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.
  31. ↑ 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.
  32. ↑ "Andrew Griffith MP Biography Gov.uk".
  33. ↑ "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).
  34. ↑ The Bell Magazine (2 March 2020). "The Bell Magazine - Spring 2020".
  35. ↑ 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.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Arundel and South Downs
2019–present		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
2021–2022
With: Sarah Dines 		Succeeded by
Office established Minister for Policy
2022		Vacant
Preceded by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exports
2022		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit
2022		Vacant
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