Justine Greening

The Right Honourable Justine Greening MP
Secretary of State for International Development
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 September 2012
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Andrew Mitchell
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 14 October 2011 – 4 September 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Philip Hammond
Succeeded by	Patrick McLoughlin
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 13 May 2010 – 14 October 2011
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Chancellor	George Osborne
Preceded by	Ian Pearson
Succeeded by	Chloe Smith
Member of Parliament for Putney
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Tony Colman
Majority	10,053 (24.6%)
Personal details
Born	30 April 1969 Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	University of Southampton University of London
Religion	Christian (Anglicanism)
Website	Official website

Justine Greening MP (born 30 April 1969) is a British Conservative politician and government minister.

Greening has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Putney since the 2005 general election and was appointed Secretary of State for International Development in September 2012. Previously, she was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury in May 2010, and became Secretary of State for Transport on 14 October 2011. On 4 September 2012, she was replaced by Patrick McLoughlin at the Department for Transport, and became Secretary of State for International Development.^[1]

Early life

Greening was born in Rotherham, where she attended Oakwood Comprehensive School.^[2] She is a graduate of the University of Southampton, where she studied Economics,^[3] and has an MBA from the London Business School. Before entering parliament, she trained and qualified^[4] as an accountant, before working as an accountant/finance manager for, amongst others, Price Waterhouse Coopers, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.

Political career

Greening contested the constituency of Ealing, Acton & Shepherd's Bush in 2001, finishing second with a reduced share of the vote for the Conservatives. She won the seat of Putney in the 2005 general election on 5 May 2005. Greening won 15,497 votes (42.4% of the vote) giving her a majority of 1,766 (4.8%). She unseated Tony Colman, who had held the seat for Labour since defeating David Mellor in 1997.

As the first Conservative elected on the evening of the election, her victory was the first real sign that the Conservative Party was to reduce the Labour Government's majority and begin to recover from the landslide defeats of the 1997 and 2001 general elections. Michael Howard, who had visited Putney to give a speech on his first day as Conservative Leader, returned there on the morning after the election to congratulate Putney Conservatives and give the speech in which he announced his intention to step down.

Greening was appointed a Vice-Chair (with responsibility for youth) of the Conservative Party on 15 December 2005, having earlier that year been appointed a member of the Work and Pensions Committee. In July 2007 following a shadow ministerial reshuffle, she was promoted to be a Junior Shadow Minister for The Treasury. In January 2009 following a further shadow ministerial reshuffle, Greening was promoted to Shadow Minister for London, within the Communities and Local Government Team with responsibility for Local Government Finance. Within this brief, she focussed on transport and local community benefits. In March 2010 she was put in charge of co-ordinating the Conservative campaign for the 2010 general election in London.^[5] She became Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Transport Secretary

In October 2011 she was appointed Secretary of State for Transport and was sworn of the Privy Council.^[6]

Greening represents the London constituency of Putney and had always campaigned against a third runway at Heathrow. In the run up to the 2012 Cabinet reshuffle Greening said it would be difficult to serve in a Cabinet which was in favour of a third runway.^[7]

In the event Greening was reshuffled on 4 September 2012. The move was attacked by Boris Johnson.^[8]

International Development Secretary

Greening and actor Idris Elba at a Defeating Ebola virus conference, 2014

On 4 September 2012 she was replaced by Patrick McLoughlin at the Department for Transport and became Secretary of State for International Development.^[1] As Secretary of State for International Development, Greening became a member of the National Security Council (United Kingdom).

Greening failed to vote in a critical parliamentary division about military action in Syria. Although in the Houses of Parliament at the time, she was reportedly chatting to another Minister in a room behind the House of Commons, failing to notice that the division bell had sounded.^[9]

Other background

She was the youngest female Conservative MP in the House of Commons^[10] until Chloe Smith (who succeeded her at HM Treasury) was elected to Parliament on 12 October 2009.

During the 2009 expenses scandal, Greening was ranked as the 9th best value for money MP in research carried out by the free-market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute, and of all her expenses claims she was the 599th lowest out of the 645 MPs.

In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.^[11]

Styles

• Ms Justine Greening (1969–2005)
• Ms Justine Greening, MP (2005–2011)
• The Rt Hon Justine Greening, MP (2011–)

References

1. "Full post-reshuffle list of Conservative Cabinet Ministers". ConservativeHome. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
2. "Justine Greening: Electoral history and profile". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
3. "About Justine". Justine Greening website.
4. "Welcome to ICAEW.com". ICAEW. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
5. Archived 15 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
6. "Court Circular 17 October 2011". Facebook.com. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
7. Hope, Christopher (28 August 2012). "Heathrow third runway: Transport Secretary threatens to resign". The Daily Telegraph (London).
8. "Boris Johnson condemns Justine Greening 'demotion over Heathrow'". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
9. Groves, Jason (30 August 2013). "Six ministers who missed the vote: Chief Whip under fire as shambles in Commons is exposed". Daily Mail (London).
10. "BBC News". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
11. "BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour Power list". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2015.

External links

• Justine Greening MP Conservative Party profile
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• www.dft.gov.uk
• Debrett's People of Today