Grant Shapps was appointed as the new Home Secretary by Liz Truss last night, who is now resigning as Prime Minister following a day of chaos for the Conservative government yesterday.
Suella Braverman kickstarted the mayhem as she resigned as Home Secretary accusing the government of breaking "key pledges" and said she had "serious concerns" about them.
Braverman's resignation was followed quickly by the announcement that Shapps had been chosen to replace her.
Shapps' appointment came as a surprise to many as the former Transport Secretary backed Rishi Sunak during the Tory leadership race and has been critical of Truss' policies.
But it's not just his former opposition to Truss that makes Shapps a controversial appointment, the MP has also been involved in a number of scandals during his career.
Who is Grant Shapps?
Grant Shapps is a Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire who is now serving as the new Home Secretary.
Shapps was born in 1968 and attended Yorke Mead Primary School, Watford Grammer School for Boys and Cassio College in Watford before going on to graduate with a diploma in business and finance from Manchester Polytechnic.
Prior to his career in politics Grant founded PrintHouse Corporation in 1990, a design, print and website creation and marketing business in London.
Shapps began attempting to get elected into Parliament in 1994 but had three unsuccessful attempts before finally being elected as a an MP for Welwyn Hatfield in 2005.
He then backed David Cameron's bid for leadership and once Cameron was elected as the new leader of the Conservative Party Shapps was appointed as vice chairman.
In 2007 he went on to become Shadow Housing Minister and following the 2010 election he was appointed as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government.
In 2012 he was appointed as Minister without Portfolio before being moved to Minister of State in 2015.
In July 2019 Shapps was appointed as the Secretary of State for Transport but was sacked from the role by Liz Truss shortly after she won her bid for leadership.
Shapps has also been married to his wife, Belinda, since 1997 and the couple share three children.
What has Grant Shapps said about Liz Truss?
Grant Shapps' appointment as Home Secretary came just two days after he cast doubt on Liz Truss' future as leader of the Conservative Party, saying that the PM remaining in power would be like "threading the eye of a needle with the lights off".
He told Matt Forde’s podcast: “I don’t think there’s any secret she has a mountain, a Mount Everest to climb, what she needs to do is like threading the eye of a needle with the lights off.”
As well as questioning her success, Shapps even revolted against Truss earlier this month at the Conservative Party conference when he criticised her plans to scrap the 45p rate of income tax, branding the plans "politically tin eared" and warned she had "10 days" to turn things around.
He told The News Agents podcast: "I think if you're honest, the next 10 days is a critical period of time."
Shapps also failed to back Truss during her bid for the leadership, instead choosing to back her top competitor, Rishi Sunak, as he Tweeted: "Amongst a field of brilliant candidates I've spoken to @RishiSunak who I believe has the competence and experience to lead this country."
As well as all of this, the new Home Secretary has also been branded a "spreadsheet schemer" and it's been claimed that he had been recording fellow Tory MP's views of Truss in a spreadsheet.
In an episode of The Rest is Politics podcast, former Tory MP and host Rory Stewart claimed that Shapps kept a "famous" spreadsheet that he used to try to "take down" Theresa May in 2017.
He added: "It's meant to be a fabled spreadsheet, people refer to it as a kind of Star Wars spreadsheet and now he's running it to topple Liz Truss and the reason why he's doing it is that she fired him."
Grant Shapps' fake identity controversy
In 2012, while Shapps was serving as Conservative Party chairman, Shapps was accused of previously using pseudonyms to hold another job outside of Parliament after his election as an MP in 2005.
One fake name that he continuously denied using was Michael Green.
But in 2015 he was exposed as having continued to work as a "multimillion-dollar web marketer" of a get-rich-quick scheme for at least a year after becoming an MP under the Michael Green pseudonym and finally confirmed the identity after dismissing the claims for years.
Soon after the scandal he was demoted to aid minister but later resigned from that role after a bullying scandal where he was accused of ignoring allegations of bullying that the father of a young Tory activist claimed led to their suicide.
Shapps said that "neither the party nor I can find any record of written allegations of bullying, sexual abuse or blackmail made to the chairman’s office prior to the election" but still resigned, stating that "responsibility should rest somewhere."
Grant Shapps' battle with cancer
Prior to becoming an MP Shapps also had a serious health scare when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
He received the cancer diagnosis in 1999 when he was just 31 years old and went to the doctor with a persistent cough.
After an X-ray Shapps was told he had a grapefruit sized cancerous mass in his chest and had to undergo gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
Opening up about the harrowing diagnosis in 2014, Shapps told the Express: "My experience has definitely given me more empathy,
“When you’ve been in that hospital bed, you know how it feels for other people who are going through difficult times.
He underwent his final round of chemotherapy in 2000 before being given the all-clear.
