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
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	John Townend
Majority	14,933 (29.9%)
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 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 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 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 in favour of Britain leaving the EU.

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

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 ^[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

External links

• gregknight.com
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Greg Knight