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Greg Knight

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The Right Honourable
Sir Gregory Knight
MP
File:Greg Knight, MP (East Yorkshire).jpg
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
In office
4 September 2012 – 7 October 2013
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byMark Francois
Succeeded byDesmond Swayne
Minister of State for Energy and Industry
In office
23 July 1996 – 2 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byTimothy Eggar
Treasurer of the Household
In office
7 June 1993 – 23 July 1996
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byDavid Heathcoat-Amory
Succeeded byAndrew MacKay
Member of Parliament
for East Yorkshire
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 June 2001
Preceded byJohn Townend
Majority14,933 (29.9%)
Member of Parliament
for Derby North
In office
9 June 1983 – 1 May 1997
Preceded byPhilip Whitehead
Succeeded byBob Laxton
Personal details
Born (1949-04-04) 4 April 1949 (age 75)
Blaby, Leicestershire, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseJanet Ormond[1]
Alma materThe College of Law
ProfessionSolicitor
Websitewww.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 2015.

Education and professional life

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

Political career

He served as a Leicester City and Leicestershire County Councillor from 1976 to 1983.

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 the UK's licensing law by doubling UK '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 now 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 had been deputy Chief Whip under John Major between 1993 and 1996 and was 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".[2]

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 Act, 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.[3]

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.[4]

Knight strongly supports amending the smoking ban in pubs.[5] He is a Eurosceptic and is against Britain joining the euro.

Knight has argued in Parliament for "double summertime", which would see the clocks go forward by two hours during summer.[6]

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 [7] and successfully called on the Government to exempt historic vehicles from MOT tests.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

Personal life

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

He plays the drums and is a founder member of MP4[11]—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".[12] Welsh chart-topping singer Duffy has described him as ‘a great drummer’.[13]

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. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  2. ^ "Privy Counsellors". independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  3. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 04 Mar 2011 (pt 0001)". parliament.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  4. ^ "Knighthoods conferred: Greg Knight MP and John Randall MP". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  5. ^ "Shane Frith: Why you should support the campaign to amend the smoking ban". Conservative Home. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  6. ^ Williams, Rob (26 October 2013). "Time for debate? Don't forget the clocks go back overnight... but should they?". Independent. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group". historicvehicles.org.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  8. ^ http://gregknight.com/2011/11/knight-welcomes-mot-exemption-review/
  9. ^ "The International Historic Motoring Awards". historicmotoringawards.com. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  10. ^ Jamieson, Alistair (17 May 2009). "Greg Knight: MP's driveway repairs on expenses". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  11. ^ "MP4 The Band". mp4theband.co.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  12. ^ http://www.gregknight.com/mp4news.php
  13. ^ http://www.gregknight.com/1january2011.php
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Derby North
1983–1997 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for East Yorkshire
2001–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Treasurer of the Household
1993–1996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
2012–present 		Incumbent

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