Chris Grayling is the Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell and Secretary of State for Justice. He held several positions in the Shadow Cabinet prior to the 2010 General Election.
Chris was educated at The Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, followed by Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1984. After University he joined BBC News in 1985 as a trainee, becoming a producer in 1986. On leaving the BBC in 1992, he ran a number of production companies until becoming a management consultant with Burson Marsteller as their European Marketing Director.
Chris was selected to contest the Labour-held marginal seat of Warrington South at the 1997 general election. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Merton in 1998. He was elected to the House of Commons for the Surrey seat of Epsom and Ewell at the 2001 general election following the retirement of the veteran Conservative MP Archie Hamilton. In the constituency, he has a long-running campaign to retain the local Epsom Hospital's emergency department.
In his early days as an MP, Chris was heavily involved in the questioning of David Blunkett, the then Work and Pensions Secretary, over his business affairs that led to his resignation in 2005. He also challenged Cherie and Tony Blair over the money they made from lectures while Blair was in Downing Street.
He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010.
He is married to Sue and they have a daughter, Laura, and a son, Matthew . He supports Manchester United, and can boast that he once hit a four off the Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee. He has had a number of books published on subjects including life in England after the Great War and Anglo-American relations since 1945.