Greg Knight

The Right Honourable
Sir Gregory Knight
MP
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
In office
4 September 2012 – 7 October 2013
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Mark Francois
Succeeded by Desmond Swayne
Minister of State for Energy and Industry
In office
23 July 1996 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister John Major
Preceded by Timothy Eggar
Treasurer of the Household
In office
7 June 1993 – 23 July 1996
Prime Minister John Major
Preceded by David Heathcoat-Amory
Succeeded by Andrew MacKay
Member of Parliament
for East Yorkshire
Assumed office
7 June 2001
Preceded by John Townend
Majority 15,006 (27.8%)
Member of Parliament
for Derby North
In office
9 June 1983 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by Philip Whitehead
Succeeded by Bob Laxton
Personal details
Born (1949-04-04) 4 April 1949
Blaby, Leicestershire, England
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Janet Ormond[1]
Alma mater The College of Law
Profession Solicitor
Website www.gregknight.com

Sir Gregory Knight (born 4 April 1949) is a British politician and author. He is Conservative Member of Parliament for East Yorkshire and was re-elected with an increased majority in the general election of 2017.[2]

Education and professional life

Born in Blaby, Leicestershire, Knight was educated at Alderman Newton’s Grammar School, Leicester, and the College of Law Guildford, qualifying as a solicitor in 1973.

Political career

Knight served as a Leicester City Councillor for Castle Ward and Leicestershire County Councillor for Evington Division from 1976 to 1981.

He was MP for Derby North from 1983 until the 1997 election, when he lost his seat. He returned to the House of Commons in 2001 after successfully contesting the East Yorkshire seat.

As a backbencher, in the 1980s, he succeeded in amending licensing law in England and Wales by doubling 'drinking up time' on licensed premises from ten to twenty minutes, a concession that was welcomed by the industry and drinkers alike. However the 2003 Licensing Act ended standard permitted hours and provides for an unspecified drinking up time determined by the licensee’s discretion.

He is in favour of bringing back capital punishment and spoke out against the Apartheid government of South Africa during the 1980s.

He was deputy Chief Whip under John Major between 1993 and 1996 and Minister of State for Industry at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1996 until the Conservative defeat at the 1997 election. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1995, entitling him to the style "Right Honourable".[3]

He served under Michael Howard as a shadow minister for Environment and Transport until 2005. In the 2005–10 Parliament, he was Chairman of the House of Commons Procedure Committee and on four other House of Commons select committees: the Liaison Committee, Administration Committee, the Committee on Modernisation of the House and the Standards and Privileges Committee. He was re-elected unopposed to the chair of the Procedure Committee in 2010.

In 2011, he successfully piloted the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act 2011, a private member's bill to make the distribution of estates fairer. The bill passed unanimously in Parliament and was supported by the Law Commission as well.[4]

He rejoined the government in September 2012 as a Senior Whip and Vice Chamberlain of the Royal Household, a position he held until October 2013.

In October 2013, he was awarded a Knighthood for political service.[5]

Knight strongly supports amending the smoking ban in pubs.[6] He is a Eurosceptic and is in favour of Britain leaving the E.U.

Knight has argued in Parliament for "double summertime", which would see the clocks go forward by two hours during summer.[7]

He is Secretary of the British American Parliamentary Group, one of the largest and most active all-party groups at Westminster. An avid motorist, he is critical of initiatives seen as 'anti-car', such as congestion charging, pedestrianisation schemes, speed humps and some 'park and ride' proposals. He is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group [8] and successfully called on the Government to exempt historic vehicles from MOT tests.[9] 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.[10] The Daily Telegraph noted that Knight had claimed £2,600 in expenses for "driveway repairs" at his constituency home, though Knight insisted that his cars were kept separately and paid for out of his own pocket.[11]

In February 2018, it was revealed that people telephoning his office by phone were offered both a geographical number and an 0845 number.[12]

Personal life

Knight is a classic car enthusiast and owns a number of classic cars.

He plays the drums and is a founder member of MP4[13]—the world's only parliamentary rock group. The others are fellow MPs Kevin Brennan and Peter Wishart and former MP Ian Cawsey. He has backed several other artists on the drums in live shows including George McCrae ("Rock Your Baby") and Fergal Sharkey ("Teenage Kicks").[14] and, in the studio, he played drums backing KT Tunstall, Steve Harley, Ricky Wilson and David Gray on the charity single "You Can't Always Get What You Want" released in December 2016 by Chrysalis Records. Welsh chart-topping singer Duffy has described him as ‘a great drummer’.[15]

He has written six books, mostly on the subject of political quips and insults.

Publications

  • Westminster Words (1988), published by Buchan and Enright
  • Honourable Insults (1990), published by Robson Books
  • Parliamentary Sauce (1993), published by Robson Books
  • Right Honourable Insults (1998), published by Chrysalis Books
  • Naughty Graffiti (2005), published by Anova Books
  • Dishonourable Insults (2011), published by The Robson Press ( ISBN 9781849541619)

References

  1. ↑ "Siedmere event hailed a success – "also enjoying the evening were the Rt Hon Greg Knight, MP, his wife Janet"". driffieldintouch.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  2. ↑ "Live UK election results tracker". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "Privy Counsellors". Privy Council Office. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 04 Mar 2011 (pt 0001)". Hansard. UK Parliament. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Knighthoods conferred: Greg Knight MP and John Randall MP". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Shane Frith: Why you should support the campaign to amend the smoking ban". ConservativeHome. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Williams, Rob (26 October 2013). "Time for debate? Don't forget the clocks go back overnight... but should they?". The Independent. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "Officers". Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  9. ↑ GregKnight.com Archived 3 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ "Category". International Historic Motoring Awards. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Jamieson, Alistair (17 May 2009). "Greg Knight: MP's driveway repairs on expenses". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Bloom, Dan (2018-02-20). "Tory MP's constituents charged 55p a minute when they phone him for help". mirror. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  13. ↑ "MP4 The Band". MP4. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  14. ↑ GregKnight.com Archived 5 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ GregKnight.com Archived 23 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Philip Whitehead		 Member of Parliament for Derby North
1983–1997		 Succeeded by
Bob Laxton
Preceded by
John Townend		 Member of Parliament for East Yorkshire
2001–present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
David Heathcoat-Amory		 Treasurer of the Household
1993–1996		 Succeeded by
Andrew MacKay
Preceded by
Mark Francois		 Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
2012–present		 Incumbent
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