John Hayes

Sir John Henry Hayes (born 23 June 1958) is a British politician.

A member of the Conservative Party, he has held five ministerial positions and six shadow ministerial positions.

He also chaired the University's Conservative Association from 1981 to 1982 while being President of one of the residential halls, Lincoln's Junior Common Room, and served as treasurer of the university's Students' Union from 1982 to 1983.

Hayes suffered a serious head injury in his early 20s, from which he has never fully recovered.

He has focused much of his career on raising funds for research into acquired brain injury and support for those who suffer from it.

Before entering Parliament, he was a sales director for The Data Base Ltd, an information technology company based in Nottingham.

He was elected to Nottinghamshire County Council in 1985 where he was the Conservative Group Spokesman on Education and Chairman of its Campaigns Committee.

He served there for 13 years, standing down following his election to Parliament.

He contested Derbyshire North East at the 1987 general election but was defeated by Labour's Harry Barnes by 3,720 votes.

He fought the same seat at the 1992 general election and although he increased the Tory vote, finished some 6,270 votes behind Barnes.

First elected in 1997, Hayes is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lincolnshire constituency of South Holland and The Deepings – the safest Conservative seat in the United Kingdom.

Hayes was elected to the House of Commons for the newly created seat of South Holland and The Deepings in Lincolnshire at the 1997 general election.

He made his maiden speech on 2 July 1997.

In Parliament, Hayes served on the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Select committee for two years from 1997 and spent two years from 1998 on the education and employment committee.

In 1999, he was appointed by William Hague as a vice chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for campaigning, and in 2000 continued on the front-bench as Shadow Schools Minister in the Department for Education and Skills.

He secured a majority of 7,991 and has been elected with increased majorities at successive elections since, with swings to him of 4.4% in 2001, 4.3% in 2005 and 0.3% in 2010, increasing the Conservative share of the vote to 59.1%.

It is now a safe seat for the Tories.

He was appointed Assistant Chief Whip Opposition Whip by Iain Duncan Smith — for whom Hayes had been a speech writer — in 2001, before entering his shadow cabinet as the shadow Agriculture & Fisheries Secretary in 2002.

In 2003, after Michael Howard became Conservative leader, Hayes was appointed as Shadow Minister for Housing & Planning.

He was briefly a spokesman on transport following the 2005 general election before being moved by David Cameron later in 2005 to speak on education and skills and in particular on vocational education.

He was promoted by Cameron to Shadow Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education in 2007.

On 13 May 2010, Hayes was appointed as Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning jointly at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education.

On 4 September 2012 he was appointed Minister of State for Energy at the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Hayes was appointed as a Privy Councillor in April 2013 and a Knight Bachelor in November 2018.

Hayes is considered a social conservative, economic protectionist, communitarian and Eurosceptic.

He strongly supported Britain's withdrawal from the EU and has spoken regularly about his belief in conservative ideas and philosophy.

Hayes is known for speaking passionately and theatrically in the House of Commons chamber and has been described as a "colourful character" who is "popular and influential on the Tory right".

On 28 March 2013, he was removed from the DECC and replaced by Michael Fallon.

Hayes became Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office.

He was appointed to the Privy Council on 9 April 2013.

Hayes was appointed as Minister of State at the Department for Transport in the reshuffle on 15 July 2014 with responsibility for national roads, Highways Agency reform and the Infrastructure Bill, and maritime issues.

He was also the Commons spokesman on bus policy.

After the 2015 general election, Hayes was moved to the Home Office, being appointed "Minister of State, Minister for Security", with responsibility for counter-terrorism, security, serious organised crime and cyber crime, amongst other issues.

South Holland delivered the nation's second-highest Leave vote in the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

73.6% of voters voted for withdrawal from the EU, second only to neighbouring Boston.

Hayes was born into a working-class family in Woolwich and grew up on a council estate.

He was educated at the Colfe's Grammar School (Lewisham) and at the University of Nottingham from where he graduated with a BA degree in politics and a PGCE in history and English.

More recently, he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Postgraduate Certificate in Philosophy.

Hayes was involved in a campaign to create a pipe-smoking society affiliated to the Students' Union.

In the government formed by Theresa May in July 2016, Hayes was reshuffled back to become a Minister at the Department for Transport.