Gareth Davies is the Conservative MP for Grantham and Bourne, having first been elected for the predecessor seat of Grantham and Stamford at the 2019 general election.

He currently serves as shadow business and trade minister on the Conservative frontbench.

In the 2024 general election, Davies won 16,770 votes, representing 36.4% of the vote. The Labour candidate, Vipul Bechar, received 12,274 votes (26.6%), while the Reform UK candidate, Mike Rudkin, secured 9,393 votes (20.4%). Davies was duly elected with a majority of 4,496 votes.

The Grantham and Bourne constituency covers the two Lincolnshire towns and surrounding areas. It was created for the 2024 election, largely replacing the former Grantham and Stamford constituency. Agriculture and food processing are important local industries. Grantham is the birthplace of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the area is considered a safe Conservative seat.

Davies’ two immediate predecessors as the MP for Grantham and Stamford defected from the Conservative Party. Quetin Davies (no relation) (1987-2010) and Nick Boles (2010-2019), both left the Conservative Party towards the end of their respective tenures as MPs. Quetin Davies, a former shadow cabinet minister, defected to Labour in 2007 and went on to serve as a minister in Gordon Brown’s government – while Boles resigned the Tory whip in 2019, citing his party’s failure to compromise on Brexit. Boles, a former minister, stated his intention to vote for the Labour Party in 2022.

Political Career

Davies currently serves as shadow financial secretary to the Treasury. Davies was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow ministerial reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Davies previously served as shadow parliamentary under secretary of state for business and trade (2025-2026) and as shadow financial secretary to the Treasury from November 2024 to January 2026 (before being reappointed to the role). He held the position of shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury from July to November 2024 in the interim/caretaker shadow cabinet constructed after the 2024 general election.

Prior to the 2024 election, Davies held the government position of exchequer secretary to the Treasury from April 2023 to July 2024. Before this, he served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, from November 2022 to April 2023. A PPS acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

In November 2021, Davies was appointed as PPS to the Department of Health and Social Care and Sajid Javid, the secretary of state. Davies resigned from this post in July 2022 as part of the mass walkout of ministers (triggered by Javid’s sensational resignation) that ultimately forced Boris Johnson’s defenestration as prime minister.

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Davies has twice introduced legislation, in consecutive parliamentary sessions, to extend eligibility to paternity leave and pay as well as to provide for more flexibility in the timing of and notice period for paternity leave. The Paternity (Leave and Pay) Bill, 2021-22 and 2022-23, was based on a report by the Centre for Social Justice. In the report, Davies argued that government can and should take on a crucial role in changing our paternity leave system, which he considered inadequate.

During his tenure as a parliamentarian, Davies has led a series of successful campaigns that have changed government policy.

In 2020, Davies led calls in the House of Commons for the government to issue its first ever sovereign green bond, which the then-chancellor, Rishi Sunak, ultimately announced. In an article for the Telegraph, published October 2020, Davies argued that issuing green bonds could be a “tonic for all our ills”.

He added: “It will fight climate change, it will raise capital to invest in infrastructure, jobs and our economy and it might also lower the cost of our debt.”

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Davies has campaigned for investors to better disclose links to modern slavery in investment portfolios. Speaking in an October 2021 Westminster Hall debate, he said that financial services firms are a “£9 trillion lever that we are not yet pulling in our fight against modern slavery.”

He added: “The UK is the largest net exporter of financial services in the world and the law change that I have proposed could make a difference in eradicating that horrendous crime – it would also protect and promote our democratic values at home and abroad.

“British savers and investors should never be used to support profit from human slavery.”

In October 2020, Davies authored a report for the centre-right think tank Onward which considered the case for a British development bank. “The UK is unusual among developed countries in not having a national development bank to catalyse private sector activity where the market will not invest alone”, he stated. “If we are serious about levelling up, we need a British development bank.”

Sunak as chancellor committed to establishing such an institution in November 2020.

Davies has also argued that pension auto-enrolment should be extended to 18–22-year-olds.

Davies is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for private capital.

Davies delivered his maiden speech on 11 March 2020 during a debate on the budget. In it, he said: “Today’s budget sets out a clear response to the coronavirus, but also sets a clear path for our country as the government seek to level up and spread opportunity more widely. This agenda is close to my heart, as a northern, state school-educated son of a state primary school teacher mum and small business owner dad.”

He added: “We have to remember that behind every business is someone who had an idea, saw it through, stuck it out and made it work. At the end of the day, businesses are people—they are the faces, the families and the stories that are the lifeblood of all our communities. That is why it is so important that this budget today supports them.”

Davies ​​previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Doncaster Central and Leeds Central at the 2010 and 2017 general elections respectively. He finished second on both occasions, first to Labour’s Rosie Winterton and latterly to Labour’s Hilary Benn.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2024: Davies supported Robert Jenrick’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.

Jenrick, a former immigration minister, positioned himself on the right wing of the party, advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He emerged as an early frontrunner, topping the first two parliamentary ballots. After reaching the final two, he was defeated in the membership vote by Kemi Badenoch, receiving 41,388 votes (43.5%) compared to Badenoch’s 53,806 (56.5%).

In a Telegraph op-ed, published August 2024, Davies argued that Jenrick was best-placed among the available candidates to restore the Conservative Party’s “economic reputation”.

He wrote: “I want our country to remain a strong economic force in the world, competitive abroad because it is rooted in opportunity and aspiration at home. If we get this right, we can end one term of hard Labour and I believe Robert is the best person to achieve this.”

Tory leadership 2022 (I): Davies supported Rishi Sunak’s 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.

Sunak, the former chancellor, warned against “comforting fairytales” regarding unfunded tax cuts. Although he won every round of the parliamentary ballots, securing 137 votes in the final stage, Sunak was defeated by Liz Truss in the membership vote, finishing with 60,399 votes (42.6%).

At the time, Davies said Sunak had the “strength, ability and vision” to succeed as prime minister.

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Tory leadership 2022 (II): Davies also supported 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”.

Factional identity and party tradition

Davies’ official website records that he is a member of the 92 Group of Conservative MPs. The 92 Group was established at a meeting at 92 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, south-west London, in 1964 to “keep the Conservative party conservative”. Davies was not in attendance. Membership is by invitation only. During John Major’s premiership (1989-1997), the group became a focus for Thatcherite MPs dissatisfied with his leadership – including George Gardiner (later of the Referendum Party), Norman Tebbit, Sir Christopher Chope and Sir Edward Leigh. Chope and Leigh remain veteran Conservative MPs.

The group was prominent in supporting John Redwood’s unsuccessful candidacy in his challenge against Major for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995.

Blue Collar Conservatives: Davies was previously listed as a member of the Blue Collar Conservatives group. This faction within the Conservative party was founded in 2012 by the former cabinet minister Esther McVey, but came to greater prominence following the 2019 general election. The group aimed to “champion working people and develop a conservative agenda to benefit the voters and communities most neglected by Labour”. In October 2022, McVey was succeeded by Lee Anderson as the group’s chair.

Bright Blue: Davies has been listed as a parliamentary supporter of Bright Blue, an independent centre-right think tank and membership organisation that champions liberal conservatism in the UK. Since its founding in 2014, the organisation has expanded its reach through a new cross-party strategy.

Assisted dying

Davies 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 May 2025, Davies said: “My central objection to the bill is that, whatever the specific ‘safeguards’ involved, its impact would be no less far-reaching. Whatever the intention, the effect would be a fundamental change in the way we view life as a society.

“Rather than being something of intrinsic worth, the value of life would instead begin to depend on circumstance and be weighed against other factors. This poses an existential risk to the most vulnerable in our community, and would hinder ongoing efforts both to improve palliative care and develop lifesaving medicines.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Davies 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.

Foreign policy and security

Davies if a founding member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

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Before Politics

Born Gareth Mark Davies in Leeds, West Yorkshire on 31 March 1984, he grew up in Leeds and Hull. He attended state comprehensive schools.

Davies studied at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2006.

He later completed a master’s degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He began his career in the investment management industry in 2006, working for thirteen years at Columbia Threadneedle Investments (formerly Threadneedle Investments) in various roles in the UK and US, advising global pension funds, private banks, and sovereign wealth funds.

Personal Life

Davies is married to Laura Davies. They live in the Grantham and Bourne constituency.

Trivia

According to a Financial Times profile, Davies dreamt of one day going into business as a child, even setting up an office in his bedroom and asking for stationary supplies as Christmas presents.

While studying at Harvard, Gareth Davies visited North Korea. His visit, with a small group of Harvard students, was featured on North Korean state television.

In 2020, Davies recounted this experience to the then-US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

Speaking later, Davies said he was struck by the influence of China on Pyongyang and the “devastating” circumstances in which local people lived.

In 2018, Davies was named one of Europe’s top “rising stars” by Financial News.

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