John Hayes (British politician)

John Henry Hayes, CBE MP FRSA (born 23 June 1958) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Holland and The Deepings, and a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group.

Hayes was born into a working-class family in Woolwich, grew up on a council estate and was educated at the Colfe's Grammar School (Lewisham) and at the University of Nottingham where he was awarded a BA degree in politics and a PGCE in history and English. Hayes was involved in a campaign to create a pipe-smoking society affiliated to the Students' Union. He also chaired the University's Conservative Association from 1981-82 while being President of one of the residential halls, Lincoln's JCR and served as treasurer of the University's Students' Union from 1982-83.

Before entering Parliament, he was a sales director for The Data Base Ltd, an IT company based in Nottingham.

Councillor

He was elected to Nottinghamshire County Council in 1985 where he was the Conservative Group Spokesman on Education and Chairman of its Campaigns Committee. He served there for 13 years, standing down following his election to parliament.

He contested Derbyshire North East at the 1987 general election but was defeated by the new Labour MP Harry Barnes by 3,720 votes. He fought the same seat at the 1992 general election and although he increased the Tory vote, finished some 6,270 votes behind Barnes.

Member of Parliament

He was elected to the House of Commons for the new Lincolnshire seat of South Holland and The Deepings at the 1997 general election. He secured a majority of 7,991 and has been elected with increased majorities at successive elections since with swings to him of 4.4% in 2001, 4.3% in 2005 and 0.3% in 2010, increasing the Conservative share of the vote to 59.1%, so making it a safe seat for the Tories. He made his maiden speech on 2 July 1997.

In parliament, he served on the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Select Committee for two years from 1997 and two years on the education and employment committee from 1998. In 1999, he was appointed as a vice chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for campaigning by William Hague, and in 2000 continued on the frontbench as Shadow Schools Minister in the education and skills. He was appointed Assistant Chief Whip Opposition Whip by Iain Duncan Smith — for whom Hayes had been a speech writer — in 2001, before entering his shadow cabinet as the shadow Agriculture & Fisheries Secretary in 2002.

In 2003, after a change of leader, Michael Howard appointed Hayes to be Shadow Minister for Housing & Planning. He was briefly a spokesman on transport following the 2005 general election before being moved by David Cameron later in 2005 to again speak on education and skills and in particular on vocational education. He was promoted by Cameron to Shadow Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education in 2007.

On 13 May 2010 he was appointed as Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning jointly at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education. On 4 September 2012 he was appointed Minister of State for Energy at the Department for Energy and Climate Change. On the 28 March 2013 he was removed from the DECC and replaced by Michael Fallon. John was made Minister without Portfolio and Senior Parliamentary Adviser to the PM in the Cabinet Office. He was appointed to the Privy Council on 9 April 2013.

He was appointed as Minister of State at the Department for Transport in the reshuffle on 15 July 2014with responsibility for national roads, Highways Agency reform and the Infrastructure Bill, and maritime issues. He is also the commons spokesman on bus policy.

After the 2015 general election, Hayes was moved to the Home Office, being appointed "Minister of State, Minister for Security", with responsibility for counter-terrorism, security, serious organised crime and cyber crime, amongst other issues.

In the government formed by Theresa May in July 2016, Hayes was reshuffled back to the Department for Transport, with responsibility for High Speed Rail (HS2), Aviation, Europe and International, Maritime, Devolution, cycling and walking.

He is a member of the Countryside Alliance and of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). He has served as the chairman of the All Party Group on disability and secretary of the All Party Group on brain injury. Since 2009, he has been Honorary Chairman of the British Caribbean Association.