Greg Knight

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British Conservative politician

title: "Greg Knight" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1949-births", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "knights-bachelor", "living-people", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "people-from-blaby", "uk-mps-1983–1987", "uk-mps-1987–1992", "uk-mps-1992–1997", "uk-mps-2001–2005", "uk-mps-2005–2010", "uk-mps-2010–2015", "uk-mps-2015–2017", "uk-mps-2017–2019", "uk-mps-2019–2024", "politics-of-the-east-riding-of-yorkshire", "members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-constituencies-in-derbyshire", "people-educated-at-alderman-newton's-school,-leicester", "treasurers-of-the-household", "conservative-party-(uk)-councillors", "councillors-in-leicestershire", "english-knights", "british-eurosceptics"] description: "British Conservative politician" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Knight" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British Conservative politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific_prefix	The Right Honourable Sir
name	Greg Knight
image	Greg knight speaks at meeting.jpg
caption	Knight in 2009
office	Junior Government Whip
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
term_start	4 September 2012
term_end	7 October 2013
primeminister	David Cameron
predecessor	Mark Francois
successor	Desmond Swayne
office1	Minister of State for Industry
term_start1	23 July 1996
term_end1	2 May 1997
primeminister1	John Major
predecessor1	Timothy Eggar
successor1	John Battle
office2	[Government Deputy Chief Whip
in the House of Commons](chief-whip)
Treasurer of the Household
term_start2	7 June 1993
term_end2	23 July 1996
primeminister2	John Major
predecessor2	David Heathcoat-Amory
successor2	Andrew MacKay
office3	Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
primeminister3	Margaret Thatcher
John Major
term_start3	25 July 1990
term_end3	27 May 1993
predecessor3	Michael Fallon
successor3	Andrew MacKay
office4	Member of Parliament
for East Yorkshire
predecessor4	John Townend
successor4	Constituency abolished
term_start4	7 June 2001
term_end4	30 May 2024
office5	Member of Parliament
for Derby North
predecessor5	Phillip Whitehead
successor5	Bob Laxton
term_start5	9 June 1983
term_end5	8 April 1997
birth_name	Gregory Knight
birth_date
birth_place	Blaby, Leicestershire, UK
party	Conservative
spouse	Janet Ormond
alma_mater	The College of Law
profession	Solicitor
website	www.gregknight.com
::

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".

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 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Knight had claimed £2,600 in expenses for "driveway repairs" at his constituency home, though Knight stated that his cars were kept separately and paid for out of his own pocket.

Knight has successfully piloted two of his Private Members Bills into law. In 2011, he was successful in taking through Parliament the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act 2011, a bill to make the distribution of estates fairer.

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.

Knight is a Eurosceptic and is in favour of Brexit.

In 2018, he introduced his second Private Member's Bill, the Parking (Code of Practice) Bill, which mandates the Government to introduce a statutory code of practice for the operators of private car parks, to require transparency and good practice to ensure that motorists are not treated unreasonably. The bill was passed by Parliament and became an Act in March 2019.

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

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 and successfully called on the Government to exempt historic vehicles from MOT tests.

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.

Knight announced in June 2023 that he would stand down at the 2024 general election.

Personal life

He plays the drums and is a founder member of MP4—the world's only parliamentary rock group. The others are fellow former MPs Kevin Brennan and Ian Cawsey and Peter Wishart MP. Whilst he was a Leicester councillor, he co-wrote and played on "It's a Leicester Fiesta" (1979).

He has backed several other artists on the drums in live shows including George McCrae and Fergal Sharkey 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.

Honours

United Kingdom In 1995, he was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. This gave him the Honorific Title "The Right Honourable" for life.
United Kingdom In October 2013, he was awarded a Knighthood for political service. This gave him the Honorific Title "Sir" for life.

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 ()

References

"Siedmere event hailed a success – "also enjoying the evening were the Rt Hon Greg Knight, MP, his wife Janet"". driffieldintouch.com.
"Privy Counsellors". Privy Council Office.
(17 May 2009). "Greg Knight: MP's driveway repairs on expenses". The Daily Telegraph.
"House of Commons Hansard Debates for 04 Mar 2011 (pt 0001)". UK Parliament.
(22 June 2016). "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPs stand".
(2019). "Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019".
(26 October 2013). "Time for debate? Don't forget the clocks go back overnight... but should they?". The Independent.
"Officers". Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group.
[http://gregknight.com/2011/11/knight-welcomes-mot-exemption-review/ GregKnight.com] {{webarchive. link. (3 January 2013)
"Category". International Historic Motoring Awards.
(27 June 2023). "Conservative MP Sir Greg Knight to step down at next election". BBC News.
"MP4 The Band". MP4.
""Song for Belper"". BBC.
[http://www.gregknight.com/mp4news.php GregKnight.com] {{webarchive. link. (5 February 2011)
[http://www.gregknight.com/1january2011.php GregKnight.com] {{webarchive. link. (23 January 2011)
(21 October 2013). "Knighthoods conferred: Greg Knight MP and John Randall MP".

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