Nick Hurd

Hurd is eldest son of the Conservative Life Peer, Douglas Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, a former Member of Parliament, Foreign Secretary under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and a candidate in the 1990 leadership election. He is the fourth generation in the male line of his family to be elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative, following his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

After attending Sunningdale School and Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford (where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club),[2] Hurd ran his own business and represented a British bank in Brazil. In 2002, he set up the Small Business Network to advise the Conservative Party on business policy. More recently, he worked as Chief of Staff to Tim Yeo MP, who at the time was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment and Transport, and in the Conservative Research Department.

Hurd served as the Convenor of the Climate Change working group of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life Policy Group[3] from 2006 to 2008. He has also served as a member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee (EAC) before becoming a minister. In May 2016, he was given the Green Ribbon Political Award as Parliamentarian of the year (MP), citing his work on the EAC and in promoting action against climate change while at DFID where he led the Energy Africa initiative promoting greater access to sustainable energy.[4]

Hurd came top in the Private member's bill ballot in November 2006, and introduced the Sustainable Communities Bill into the House of Commons. This achieved its third reading in June 2007 and after being passed by the House of Lords, the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 received Royal Assent in October 2007.[5]

In 2016, Hurd supported remain at the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

Hurd was promoted by David Cameron to the Opposition Whips' office in July 2007. He served as Opposition Whip until his appointment as Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering in October 2008. Hurd succeeded Amber Rudd as Minister for Climate Change and Industry, and served from July 2016 to June 2017. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development from November 2015 following the resignation of Grant Shapps[6] until the reshuffle following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister in July 2016. During the Cameron–Clegg coalition he served as Minister for Civil Society from May 2010 until July 2014,[7] during which time he led the work on setting up the National Citizen Service and Big Society Capital.[8]

Hurd announced his intention to not stand in the 2019 general election, citing personal reasons.[9] He did not resign any of his ministerial roles and continued in them until the formation of the next government.

Hurd speaking in 2013

Hurd met his first wife Kim Richards at Oxford University, and they married at Eton Chapel in 1988. The couple had two sons and two daughters together.[10] In 2008, they divorced after twenty years of marriage. In 2010, he married Clare Kerr, daughter of the Conservative politician Michael Ancram (now Marquess of Lothian), after meeting at a party the previous year.[11] On 17 May 2012, Lady Clare Hurd gave birth to a baby girl, Leila.[12] A son, Caspar Jamie Hurd, was born 30 September 2014.[13]

Hurd's wife is heiress presumptive to the Lordship Herries of Terregles, currently held by her mother the Marchioness of Lothian; the couple's son is second in the line of succession to the lordship.

He is a governor of Coteford Junior School,[14] a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Grocers.

• He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 2017. This gave him the right to the honorific title "The Right Honourable" for life.

• Nick Hurd MP official site
• Blog at Conservative Home
• Nick Hurd at the Cabinet Office
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Maiden speech in the House of Commons, 15 June 2005 (Hansard)
• Debrett's People of Today