Andrew Griffith was elected Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs at the December 2019 General Election, being elected with almost 58% of the vote and having a majority of 22,521.
During his campaign, Andrew said: “I pledge to be a strong local voice for residents. More than ever before, Westminster needs people with achievements outside of politics and, with my background in business, I hope to bring some common sense and the ability to get things done.”
“Locally, I will fight to protect our countryside from unsustainable overdevelopment, for better bus and train services, the A27 Arundel Bypass, for more police in our towns and villages and for our high street, small businesses and Sussex farmers.”
ANDREW’S PRIORITIES AS A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
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To be an energetic, open and diligent Member of Parliament working for all local residents.
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Back the Prime Minister to get Brexit done.
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Work for a cleaner, greener environment and support action on the climate emergency.
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A greater police presence in our small market towns and villages reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.
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Be a voice for residents against unsustainable and anti-democratic large scale developments.
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Reduce taxes on individuals and businesses to boost the economy, support small business and create jobs.
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Better quality local transport including investment in our bus and train services and improvements to the A27.
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Support local businesses, our High Streets, village stores, rural enterprises and Sussex farmers.
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High quality health care, schools and social services.
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Back our brave servicemen and women and veterans with proper funding for our military and world class support for those who have left the services.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Andrew is not a career politician, having spent 27 years working entirely in business before deciding, aged 48, to dedicate himself to public service. Andrew lives in the constituency with his wife Barbara and their two teenage children.
Most of Andrew’s career was spent at the successful British company, Sky plc. After leaving Sky, in July 2019 he was appointed the Prime Minister’s Chief Business Adviser responsible for developing policies and working with business and across government to make Britain the best place to start, grow and run a business.
He joined Sky in 1999 and rose to become Group Chief Operating Officer, serving on the Board of Directors for a total of eleven years and helping the company grow to become one of Britain’s largest companies; serving 11 million UK households, employing over 30,000 people and paying over £1 billion a year in taxes. He was appointed Finance Director and joined the board in 2008 – at the time being the youngest person to hold that role in FTSE100 company. Throughout his tenure at Sky, the company was a leader in taking action on climate and the environment becoming one of the first companies to be Carbon Neutral thirteen years ago in 2006, partnering with WWF to save one billion trees in the Brazilian rainforest and founding Sky Ocean Rescue to make people aware of plastic pollution and give everyone easy ways to take action.
Between April 2014 and July 2019 Andrew served as Senior Independent Non Executive Director of Just Eat plc, one of the UK’s largest and most successful consumer technology companies. After acting as interim Chairman between April 2018 and April 2019 he was named The Sunday Times Non Executive Director of the Year for his leadership in steering the company through a difficult period including the un-timely passing of the previous Chairman and the UK Competition Authority review of the acquisition of Hungry House.
Andrew previously worked at PWC and Rothschild. Andrew was born and grew up on the Kent/London borders, attended his local comprehensive school and was the first in his family to attend University – going to Nottingham University where he gained a degree in Law. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1995.
ANDREW’S POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
In the summer of 2016, Andrew and Baroness Dido Harding led the national, ‘Fix Britain’s Internet’ to campaign for faster, more reliable broadband. The successful, data-led campaign resulted in over 100,000 emails to OFCOM, one of their highest responses ever and which led to a legal separation of the entities controlling broadband infrastructure paving the way for better services and ultimately the focus on broadband in all party manifestos at the 2019 General Election.
Since 2019 Andrew has been Chairman of the Advisory Board at the Centre for Policy Studies (‘CPS’), Britain’s leading centre-right think tank whose mission is to develop a new generation of conservative thinking, built around promoting enterprise, ownership and prosperity.
Andrew is currently a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology and the Select Committee on Procedure – these are both independent Committees of the House of Commons scrutinising and holding Minister’s to account or, in the case of the Procedure Committee, responsible for how Parliament itself operates.
Andrew is also the Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Dark Skies, Chairman of the APPG for Wine GB and Vice Chairman of the respective APPG’s for Automotive, Hydrogen, Media and Space.
Since June 2020, Andrew has been a member of the Wilton Park Advisory Council. Wilton Park is a not for profit executive agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which is a world leading discussion centre seeking to address and resolve global challenges through discussion, the majority of which take place at Wiston House in West Sussex.
ANDREW’S POLICY INTERESTS
As befits his extensive experience in business and the size and diversity of the Arundel & South Downs constituency, Andrew has a broad range of policy interests including, but not limited to (in alphabetical order) the below:
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Ageing and the care and respect for the elderly
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Automotive industry and electric vehicles/green mobility
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Aviation and aerospace (commercial and general)
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Broadband and telecommunications
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Broadcasting and media
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Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy
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Countryside and rural affairs
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Dark Skies campaign (against light pollution)
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Farming
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Government (the modern and effective operation of government)
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Internet and e-commerce
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Rural economy
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Rural transport
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Science and technology