Greg Hands

On 4 May 2020, Parliament’s Standards and Privileges Committee censured Greg Hands and said he should apologise personally to the House of Commons for misusing nearly £5,000 of public funds and delaying an investigation to avoid exposure during the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

On 18 May 2020, Hands apologised to MPs by video (due to the Covid-19 lockdown), saying, "I am...taking the earliest opportunity to offer the House my apology both for the initial breach of the rules and for insisting on an unnecessary reference to the committee, thereby extending the length of the inquiry.... I undertake to reimburse the House for...£4,865.55.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Hands revealed that his father, Edward Hands, had died with Coronavirus in a UK care home.

Following the third defeat of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons in March 2019, Hands co-chaired the Prosperity UK Alternative Arrangements Commission. The Alternative Arrangements Commission proposed to replace the Irish backstop with a technical solution at the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border that would avoid additional infrastructure. Hands published the report in July 2019. The report was widely criticised, not least in Northern Ireland, with haulage, retail and manufacturing groups there, as well as the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, dismissing the proposals for being "inadequate, unrealistic and lacking credibility"

Alongside former neighbouring MPs Justine Greening and Zac Goldsmith, Hands has been critical of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham's April 2019 decision to close Hammersmith Bridge to motor vehicles, and has called for the Bridge to be promptly repaired and re-opened.

During the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, Hands was one of the first MPs to declare their support for Jeremy Hunt. During the campaign, Hands wrote to Boris Johnson requesting that he review the Government's decision to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Hunt ultimately lost the contest to Johnson in the final round.

Hands was re-elected as MP for Chelsea and Fulham at the 2019 General Election, winning 49.9% of votes cast, a 2.8% decrease in the share of votes that he achieved in the 2017 election. In the 2020 British cabinet reshuffle, Hands was appointed Minister of State for Trade Policy.

The report set out that Hands initially accepted he’d misused £4,865.55 by sending out a newsletter to constituents on House of Commons stationery. However, once the general election was called, he retracted his apology. The Committee concluded, “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Mr Hands may well have been motivated by the desire to avoid the embarrassment of having to make a public apology for breaking parliamentary rules during an election campaign”.

On 21 June 2018, Hands resigned his ministerial post to vote against a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Hands voted for the UK to Remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit referendum. Following the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union and Cameron's consequent resignation, Hands was demoted by newly appointed Prime Minister Theresa May to a junior Ministerial position. Following the 2017 general election, Hands retained his position as Minister of State for Trade and Investment but also undertook the Minister for London role, replacing Gavin Barwell who lost his seat.

Hands campaigned for the UK to Remain in the European Union during the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union. In the lead-up to the Referendum, Hands led the Chelsea and Fulham Britain Stronger In Europe campaign. During the campaign, Hands issued warnings of the consequences for the UK should it leave the European Union, saying that the country would face "profound consequences" including “fewer jobs, higher prices in our shops and less money for our public services like the NHS”. A strong advocate of international trade, he asserted that the European Union's Single Market as being the “most complete commitment to free trade that exists”.

In May 2015, following the Conservatives' general election win, Hands was promoted to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury and thus the cabinet. He was made a privy councillor in the process. In the 2016 reshuffle following the EU referendum and Theresa May's appointment as prime minister, he was made Minister of State for Trade Policy at the newly formed Department for International Trade.

In 2013, Hands voted in favour of the UK legalising same-sex marriage.

On 14 October 2011, Hands was appointed as an assistant government whip in the House of Commons as a consequence of the mini-reshuffle following the resignation of Dr Liam Fox as Secretary of State for Defence.

Hands has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham since 2010; the constituency was created that year by the splitting of the former constituencies of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. Previously, he represented Hammersmith and Fulham from 2005 to 2010.

Having been elected in 2010 for Chelsea and Fulham, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, having shadowed the Treasury in opposition.

In 2007, Hands was selected to be the Conservative candidate for the new Chelsea and Fulham parliamentary constituency. His previous seat of Hammersmith and Fulham was abolished for the 2010 general election, with Hammersmith having its own seat (being fought by Shaun Bailey for the Conservatives), and Fulham joining Chelsea in a new seat. In January 2009, Hands was appointed to the Conservative front bench team as a shadow Treasury minister. He is also the Parliamentary Chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.

Hands stood down as councillor for the Town Ward in Fulham at the local elections in 2006, having been elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election when he gained Hammersmith and Fulham from the Labour Party with a majority of 5,029 votes. The sitting Labour MP Iain Coleman retired due to ill-health, and was replaced as Labour's candidate by Melanie Smallman. During March 2010, the UK media reported that Lord Ashcroft donated over £42,000 to fund Hands' 2005 campaign in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Hands made his maiden speech on 26 May 2005, in which he referred to the fact that the BBC was the largest employer in his constituency, and that Hammersmith Broadway was the busiest road interchange in Europe.

Hands was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in 1998. He became the leader of the Conservative group in 1999, remaining in that capacity until 2003.

During his gap year he worked in a swimming pool in Berlin, and became interested in the Eastern Bloc, visiting Prague and other Eastern European cities on future holidays. He worked on trading floors in derivates at the City of London and New York City until 1997.

Hands was born in New York City, and completed his secondary education at Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham in 1984. He went on to attend Robinson College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a First class degree in Modern History in 1989. He joined the Conservative Party as a student, served as the Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) and was on the Executive Committee of the Cambridge University Students' Union.

Gregory William Hands (born 14 November 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2015 until 2016, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham since 2010. Hands is currently Minister of State for Trade Policy.