Nick Gibb

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Nick Gibb
MP
File:Nick Gibb Minister.jpg
Minister of State for Schools
Assumed office
12 May 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by David Laws
In office
13 May 2010 – 4 September 2012
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Vernon Coaker
Succeeded by David Laws
Minister of State for School Reform
In office
15 July 2014 – 12 May 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Position abolished
Member of Parliament
for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded by Constituency Created
Majority 13,944 (29.6%)
Personal details
Born (1960-09-03) 3 September 1960 (age 63)
Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England
Nationality English
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Durham University
Website http://www.nickgibb.org.uk/

Nicolas John Gibb (born 3 September 1960) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton since 1997.

Gibb was reappointed as Minister of State for Schools after the 2015 general election by Prime Minister David Cameron, having held the same post beforehand between May 2010 and September 2012. He replaced his initial successor, David Laws, having previously returned to government as Minister of State for School Reform in July 2014.[1][2]

Early life

Nick Gibb was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire and was educated at Bedford Modern School, Maidstone Grammar School, Roundhay School in Leeds, and Thornes House School in Wakefield. He then attended the College of St Hild and St Bede at the University of Durham where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law in 1981.[3] Gibb was a member of the Federation of Conservative Students.[4] at a time when they were influenced by radical libertarian ideas.

In an interview regarding his education, Gibb spoke of how he believed Maidstone to be the best. "What was good about it was that it was rigorous" he told Teachers TV in 2006. "Every lesson was rigorous, even things like music: it was taught in the same way as chemistry." Wakefield, by contrast, was "terrible" due to its lack of rigour.[5]

Upon leaving school he took a job as a handyman in a London hotel, spending his evenings in the House of Commons watching late-night debates from the public gallery.[5]

In 1982, Gibb joined NatWest as a trainee accountant, before working on Kibbutz Merom Golan in 1983. In 1984 he joined KPMG as a chartered accountant until his election to parliament.[3] He is Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA).

Political career

Gibb worked as an election agent to Cecil Parkinson at the 1987 General Election, and was the secretary of the Bethnal Green and Stepney Conservative Association in 1988, becoming its chairman the following year.

Gibb contested Stoke-on-Trent Central at the 1992 General Election but was defeated into second place some 13,420 votes behind the sitting Labour MP Mark Fisher. In 1994, Gibb was selected to contest the 1994 Rotherham by-election, caused by the death of James Boyce, held on 5 May 1994. He finished in third place, 12,263 votes behind the winner Denis MacShane.

Gibb was selected to stand as the Conservative candidate for the newly created West Sussex seat of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton at the 1997 General Election. Gibb won the seat with a majority of 7,321 and has remained the MP there since.[6] He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997,[7] in which he spoke of the visit of King George V in 1929 to Bognor Regis to take in the sea air, hence the suffix of Regis on the town's name. He recalled also the town of Felpham which was the home of poet William Blake.

Opposition

Shortly after his election, Gibb joined the opposition frontbench of William Hague when he was appointed as the spokesman on trade and industry in 1997, before joining the social security select committee later in the year. The following year, in 1998 he rejoined the frontbench as a spokesman on the treasury, moving back to trade and industry in 1999.

Gibb was reportedly involved in the faction-fight between supporters of William Hague and Michael Portillo, the then Shadow Chancellor, as a supporter of Portillo [8]

He was briefly a spokesman on environment, transport and the regions following the 2001 General Election but resigned under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, reportedly because he was unhappy at his new role.[9] Michael Howard brought him back to the frontbench following the Conservative Party's defeat in the 2005 General Election as a spokesman for Education and Young People. Shortly afterwards, the newly elected Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron, promoted Nick Gibb from within the Education team to shadow Minister for Schools.[6]

Government

In the wake of the 2010 General Election and the formation of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, Gibb was appointed Minister of State for Schools in the new Department for Education. He left the Government at a ministerial reshuffle in September 2012, but returned to the same Department, again as a Minister of State, in July 2014.[10]

Views and controversy

Gibb is a longstanding advocate of synthetic phonics as a method of teaching children to read,[11] and is also a supporter of the motor neurone disease cause, currently being vice-chair of the All Party Motor Neurone Disease Group in parliament.[6]

Just days after being appointed as Minister for Schools in 2010, Gibb was criticised after leaked information suggested he had told officials at the Department of Education that he "would rather have a physics graduate from Oxbridge without a PGCE teaching in a school than a physics graduate from one of the rubbish universities with a PGCE".[12]

Personal life

He is the brother of Robbie Gibb, a former PR consultant who is now editor of the BBC's political programmes, The Daily Politics and (in an executive capacity) This Week.

In May 2015, Gibb came out as gay and announced his engagement to Michael Simmonds, the chief executive of the Populus polling organisation. They have been together for 29 years and are to marry later in 2015.[13][14]

Publications

  • Forgotten Closed Shop: Case for Voluntary Membership of Student Unions by Nicholas Gibb and David Neil-Smith, 1985, Cleveland Press ISBN 0-948194-01-4
  • Simplifying Taxes by Nick Gibb, 1987
  • Duty to Repeal by Nick Gibb, 1989, Adam Smith Institute ISBN 1-870109-71-6
  • Bucking the Market by Nick Gibb, 1990
  • Maintaining Momentum by Nick Gibb, 1992

References

  1. ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state-for-schools
  2. ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--29
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2006/07/the_federation_.html
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ http://www.ethosjournal.com/home/item/250-an-education
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton
1997–present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of State for Schools
2010–2012		 Succeeded by
David Laws
New office Minister of State for School Reform
2014–2015		 Position abolished
Preceded by Minister of State for Schools
2015–present		 Incumbent


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