Andrew Griffith is the Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs, having first been elected to parliament at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Griffith received 22,001 votes (40.2%). The Liberal Democrat candidate received 9,867 votes (18.0%), and the Labour candidate secured 9,782 votes (17.9%). Griffith was duly elected with a majority of 12,134.

The Arundel and South Downs constituency is located in West Sussex and contains a large portion of the South Downs National Park. It includes the town of Arundel, famous for its castle, alongside Hassocks, Petworth, Pulborough, Steyning, and Storrington. It is an affluent, largely rural area.

The constituency was created in 1997 and has been held continuously by the Conservative Party since then. It is considered a safe Conservative seat. Andrew Griffith succeeded Nick Herbert, who had represented the seat since 2005.

Political Career

Griffith currently serves as shadow chancellor of the exchequer. Griffith was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Griffith was shadow secretary of state for business and trade from November 2024 to August 2026. He was retained in this post following Badenoch’s July 2025 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Griffith previously served as shadow secretary of state for science, innovation and technology from July to November 2024 in the interim/caretaker shadow cabinet constructed after the 2024 general election.

During Rishi Sunak’s tenure as prime minister, Griffith held ministerial roles including minister of state for science, research and innovation (November 2023 – July 2024) and economic secretary to the Treasury (city minister) (October 2022 – November 2023).

Under Liz Truss as prime minister, Griffith served as financial secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022.

Griffith also served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for exports in the Department for International Trade (July – September 2022) and minister for policy and head of the No 10 policy unit in the Cabinet Office (February – July 2022). He held both posts in Boris Johnson’s government.

Griffith was appointed to the latter role after the resignation of Munira Mirza over the PM’s false claim that Keir Starmer, the then-leader of the opposition, failed to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile.

In her resignation letter, published by The Spectator, Mirza wrote: “You [Johnson] are a better man than many of your detractors will ever understand, which is why it is so desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition.”

Under significant political pressure, Griffith’s appointment was seen as a feature of “Operation Save Big Dog” – the informal codename for the strategy devised within Downing Street in January 2022 to save Johnson’s premiership.

Before becoming a minister, Griffith was parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Johnson as prime minister from September 2021 to February 2022. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. He served as the UK’s net zero business champion from November 2020.

Upon being appointed net zero business champion, Griffith stated: “Business has a central role to play in making a successful transition to a low carbon economy. Our global leadership on climate change can open up new large and attractive sectors in the world economy in which British businesses will be well placed to succeed.”

Also in November 2020, Griffith was appointed as a member of the government’s public service broadcasting (PSB) advisory panel.

Griffith was a notable ally of Johnson. During the 2019 Conservative leadership contest, Johnson used Griffith’s £9.5 million townhouse as his campaign headquarters. Griffith, then one of the most senior executives at broadcaster Sky, was later appointed as Johnson’s chief business adviser, based at 10 Downing Street. He took on that role in July 2019.

During the significant political turbulence of June 2022, Griffith was one of the Conservative MPs who publicly declared their loyalty to Boris Johnson ahead of a vote of no confidence in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

Expressing his support, Griffith commented: “Everyone serious about fixing the big challenges our country faces should give the PM their support. The last thing anyone needs is a distracting, divisive and destructive leadership contest. We need to focus on getting on with the job and serving the country.”

In July 2021, Griffith presented the Dogs (DNA Databases) Bill to parliament. The bill proposed the creation of a national dog DNA database, which supporters argued would help tackle the growing problem of dog theft by making it easier to prove ownership, as well as holding owners accountable for dog fouling and attacks on livestock.

The Vehicle Registration Offences (Penalty Points) Bill, introduced by Griffith in October 2020, aimed to increase the penalty for vehicle registration offences by adding penalty points to the offender’s driving licence. The proposal was intended as a stronger deterrent to help combat wider criminality associated with untraceable cars.

Griffith was a member of the science, innovation and technology committee from March 2020 to October 2021, and the procedure committee from March 2020 to January 2021.

Griffith is listed as chair of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for dark skies and the wine of Great Britain, and an officer of the APPG for infant feeding.

Griffith delivered his maiden speech on 20 January 2020 during debate on economy and jobs. In it, he said: ’The constituency’s eponymous South Downs national park contains a number of unique habitats that allow endangered species to thrive, including the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly.”

He added: “On the subject of the economy and employment, I could not put it better than the words of Mrs Thatcher’s 1979 manifesto: the policy of this Government should be to ‘restore incentives so that hard work pays, success is rewarded and genuine new jobs are created in an expanding economy.’”

Griffith previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Corby in the 2005 and 2001 general elections – finishing second to Labour incumbent Phil Hope on both occasions. Griffith cut Hope’s majority to 5,700 votes and 1,517 respectively. Louise Bagshawe won the seat for the Conservatives at the 2010 general election.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2024: Griffith supported Kemi Badenoch’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election.

Badenoch, the then-shadow housing secretary, was seen as a leading figure on the party’s right wing. After finishing first in the final parliamentary ballot with 42 votes, she defeated Robert Jenrick in the membership vote on with 53,806 votes (56.5%). Badenoch was declared Conservative leader on 2 November.

In a Telegraph article, published July 2024, Griffith described Badenoch as courageous, straight-talking and resilient.

He wrote: “I expect that Labour will eventually collapse under the internal contradictions of their Left-wing identity politics worldview. Recall how one of the most effective political decisions of the last parliament was the government’s position on gender recognition, which contributed to the dramatic implosion of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP – had the scale of destruction been the same for the Conservative party, we would have been left with just 70 MPs.

“As equalities minister, Kemi was always a sure-footed figure able to confidently challenge the Left on territory which most leading Conservatives found uncomfortable.”

He added: “During the recent election, I was taken aback by the number of voters who raised with me their discrimination at the hands of a public sector infected with what Elon Musk referred to as ‘the woke mind virus’.”

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Griffith supported Liz Truss’ candidacy in the Conservative Party’s July-September 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson, following the mass exodus of more than 60 frontbenchers.

Truss, the then-foreign secretary, campaigned on a platform of sweeping tax cuts. After finishing second in the final parliamentary ballot with 113 votes, she won the subsequent vote of the party membership with 81,326 votes (57.4%) and was appointed prime minister on 6 September.

During the contest, in an article for the Telegraph, Griffith – a long-standing Johnson ally – said that he wished the former prime minister had stayed on. However, Griffith expressed his support for Truss to serve as Johnson’s successor.

He wrote: “Two specific policies I advocate the next PM adopt are abolition of the current house building target and the reversal of the proposed increase in businesses tax. Both are unconservative in principle and cause real world and political harm in practice.”

He added: “I’d rather there wasn’t a vacancy in the first place. But with just weeks remaining to submit votes it is time for us all to decide who is best to unite a fractious Conservative Party, run the country well and deliver a Conservative majority at the next general election. For me, based upon studying the policies of both candidates, that person is Liz Truss.”

During his short tenure as financial secretary to the Treasury, serving in Truss’ government, Griffith told business people at Conservative Party conference that he would like to abolish inheritance tax.

Speaking at a Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) event, Griffith said: “I shouldn’t talk about tax policy. It’s outside my lane even within the Treasury. But I have lots of my fantastic local association with me here and they will know because they asked me at my selection meeting 27 months ago which tax, if I had the choice, I would most like to see eliminated. History will record it was the inheritance tax.”

Griffith was reported to have been one of the architects of the 45p tax abolition policy, the premier measure in the September 2022 “mini-budget” – before it was summarily dropped abruptly by Kwasi Kwarteng, the then-chancellor, and Truss.

On 28 September, Griffith defended the fiscal programme outlined in the mini-budget as the “right plans”, denying that the government was responsible for market turmoil.

Asked whether the government would change course, Griffith stated: “Get on and deliver that plan – that’s what I, the chancellor and my colleagues in government are focused on.”

Tory leadership 2022 (II): Griffith supported Rishi Sunak’s candidacy in the Conservative Party’s October 2022 leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Truss after just 45 days in office, following the financial and political tailspin triggered by her mini-budget. Unlike the summer contest, this election featured an expedited process requiring each candidate to secure at least 100 nominations from MPs to proceed. Sunak, having emerged as the clear frontrunner, was declared leader of the Conservative Party unopposed on 24 October.

Johnson confidence vote: In June 2022, Griffith publicly declared their loyalty to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of a Conservative “no-confidence” in his leadership. The vote was triggered by discontent within the parliamentary party following the “partygate” scandal and the publication of the Sue Gray report. While the prime minister ultimately won the vote, the scale of the rebellion against him, with 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him, severely weakened his authority and presaged his resignation the following month.

Factional identity and party tradition

Conservative Environment Network: Griffith is listed as a member of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) parliamentary caucus. CEN is an independent forum for conservatives that supports conservation and decarbonisation. It calls for the environment to be given a higher profile at the heart of policy making, describing “biodiversity loss, climate change, and wasteful resource use are threats to our national security”, and promotes “market-based policies” to environmental challenges. Members of its parliamentary caucus, such as Griffith, are thought to generally align with the group’s “green” message and environmentalism.

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Griffith voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the ten-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Griffith voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

In a statement setting out his position, issued after the bill’s second reading debate, Griffith stated: “I fully sympathise with those who wish to see a change in the law, especially to provide relief from suffering that no palliative care can entirely eliminate. However, on something of such great magnitude I looked for the most rigorous safeguards and narrowly defined use cases.

“The legislation presented to the House for debate contained only limited safeguards, and those it does contain have been found by many experts to be severely lacking.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Griffith voted against a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born in Bexleyheath, London on 23 February 1971, Griffith grew up in Bromley. He attended St Mary & St Joseph’s School in Sidcup. He studied law at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1992. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1996.

Griffith worked initially for Rothschild & Co merchant bank and the accountancy firm PwC. He joined Sky plc in 1999, rising to become chief financial officer (CFO) in 2008 (reportedly the youngest CFO in the FTSE 100 at the time) and later taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2016. He left Sky in 2019.

From 2014, alongside his Sky role, he served as a non-executive director of Just Eat plc, becoming interim chairman during a challenging period in 2017-2018. He received The Sunday Times non-executive director of the year award in 2018 for his work at Just Eat.

He stepped down from Just Eat upon becoming the prime minister’s chief business adviser in July 2019, a role he held until his election to parliament in December 2019.

Personal Life

Griffith married Barbara, a volunteer charity worker, in 1997. They have one son and one daughter.

Trivia

Griffith’s Westminster house, previously owned by fellow Conservative MP Adam Afriyie, was used as the campaign headquarters for Boris Johnson’s successful 2019 leadership bid.