Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in the cockpit of a plane.[Missing Credit]
He has been out in his own plane, a Piper Saratoga, once since polling day – but his passion for flying does not stop at small, single-engine aircraft.
A career highlight as defence secretary, he says, was going up in a Typhoon fighter with the Royal Air Force’s Quick Reaction Alert, an outfit dubbed Britain’s “Top Guns”.
Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps (right) with an RAF pilot.[Missing Credit]
He assured the JC that there was a serious national security reason for this adventure. “Post-9/11 and before a passenger airliner is brought down, if it became clear it was about to be used in a 9/11-style terrorist attack, an executive authority [prime minister or defence secretary] has to provide the command to shoot.
“This responsibility falls to the defence secretary on a rota.
“Given the enormity of that responsibility, before you can exercise that duty you’re trained and then refreshed constantly.
“As part of my extended training, and given that I’m a qualified pilot anyway, I received extended training with a dummy intercept of a foe.”
For him, it was important to gain a hands-on understanding of “how it actually feels to be in the cockpit when the command is given to shoot down a passenger plane by the executive authority”.
What ignited the former transport secretary’s passion for flying? “My father Tony – who sadly passed away at 91 last September – was always interested in flight. He used to make us paper planes as kids. My interest was spurred through those A4 pieces of paper,” he says.
Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps's late father Tony[Missing Credit]
At home, however, there is mixed enthusiasm about his pastime. He says: “My wife isn’t keen on flying in small planes, but my kids have always loved aviation.”
It cannot be easy going from one of the most important roles in government to being dumped by the electorate. Being a naturally positive type, the former MP for Welwyn Hatfield responds lightheartedly. “I don’t have five blokes, or sometimes women, follow me and my family around in armoured cars,” he says with a grin.
Despite his defeat on July 4, Shapps has not lost any of the love he has for politics. “I’m not quite done. I’ve done a lot of the jobs in cabinet, there’s more to do,” he says.
In his first newspaper interview since the defeat, he tells the JC that he has served in “more Cabinet posts than anyone in history” – a whopping six different top ministerial roles.
That includes his stint as “the country’s shortest-ever serving home secretary since the post was set up by King George III in the 1770s, at just six days”. He forced himself to look up that fact, he admits humourously.
Will he re-stand for Parliament? “More likely than not.”
Shapps says his time at the Jewish youth movement made him “think of a future in public service”.
It is easy to see how he became one of the Conservatives’ most trusted performers on the airwaves – when asked how he felt about Sir Keir Starmer, he goes into autopilot attack mode. “I find it very, very hard to forgive him, as a Jew, for his unremitting support for Jeremy Corbyn. Twice he tried to make that man prime minister, and it’s absolutely outrageous that he sat in his [shadow] cabinet.”
He credits Starmer with immediately seeking to build bridges with the Jewish community after being elected Labour leader, but adds: “He is not the problem. His party is the problem.
“When we took the decision to defend Israel from incoming projectiles from Iran, once the front bench had finished speaking on the Labour side, virtually every Labour backbencher stood up and failed to condemn Iran, failed to condemn Hamas, failed to condemn Hezbollah, failed to condemn the Houthis, and instead attacked Israel, who had themselves just been attacked.”
However, he dismisses the “faux outrage” that he and Conservative colleagues were subjected to after they attacked Starmer for saying that he tried to keep Friday nights free to spend with his family. “Factually, it is the case that if you are ultimately in charge of your military, you would have to be available. Just in the same way that even in Israel, if it was attacked on a Friday night, the prime minister would be awake for it. That’s the point I was making … He never mentioned if he meant Shabbat. He should have said it, but he didn’t,” he says.
Although he will not declare who he is backing for the leadership of his own party, he cautioned against trying to “out-Farage” the leader of Reform UK.
He concedes that the Conservative Party is “on our knees at the minute”. But he says: “It is also factually true that there is no democratic political party in the world more successful than the Conservatives.
“We have this extraordinary history, and our history is based on the fact that we have a level of pragmatism and understanding of the country more often than not,” although “clearly not” when it came to July’s election.
“What we need to do now is not be chased off that traditional territory,” he adds. “I think that the bulk of the electorate is basically centre right in this country… and when we are not clear about what we stand for and argue among ourselves, what it takes is for a Labour Party under Keir Starmer, or under Tony Blair, to move onto our territory and they can win the elections.”
