Dominic Grieve

Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve (born 24 May 1956) is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014.

Grieve was born in Lambeth, London, the son of Percy Grieve, QC (the MP for Solihull 1964–83), and of an Anglo-French mother, Evelyn Raymonde Louise Mijouain (d. 1991), maternal granddaughter of Sir George Roberts, 1st and last baronet.

He was educated at the Lycée français Charles de Gaulle on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, Colet Court (an all-boys' preparatory school in Barnes) and Westminster School.

He was the President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1977.

He went to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History in 1978.

Grieve continued his studies at the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster), where he received a Diploma in Law in 1979.

He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1980 and is a specialist in occupational safety and health law.

He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham for the Avonmore ward in 1982, but did not stand for re-election in 1986.

He contested the Norwood constituency in the London Borough of Lambeth at the 1987 general election but finished in second place behind the veteran Labour MP John Fraser.

He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and was the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2015 to 2019.

He was elected to the House of Commons for the Buckinghamshire seat of Beaconsfield at the 1997 general election following the resignation of Tim Smith in the cash-for-questions affair.

He made his maiden speech on 21 May 1997.

He was a member of both the Environmental Audit and the Statutory Instruments select committees from 1997 to 1999.

In 1999, he was promoted to the frontbench by William Hague as a spokesman on Scottish affairs, moving to speak on home affairs as the spokesman on criminal justice following the election of Iain Duncan Smith as the new leader of the Conservative Party in 2001, and was then promoted to be shadow Attorney General by Michael Howard in 2003.

Grieve also had responsibility for community cohesion on behalf of the Conservative Party.

He voted for the Iraq War in 2003.

In early 2006, Grieve was instrumental in the defeat of the Labour government on its proposal that the Home Secretary should have power to detain suspected terrorists for periods up to 90 days without charge.

He was retained as Shadow Attorney General by the new Conservative Leader David Cameron, and was appointed Shadow Home Secretary on 12 June 2008, following the resignation of David Davis.

In the last Conservative Shadow Cabinet reshuffle before the general election of 2010, carried out on 19 January 2009, Grieve was moved to become Shadow Justice Secretary, opposite Jack Straw.

According to the BBC, Grieve was said to be "very happy with the move" which would suit his talents better.

Grieve attended the Cabinet as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland from May 2010 to July 2014.

On 28 May 2010, he was appointed to the Privy Council as part of the 2010 Dissolution of Parliament Honours List.

After the 2010 general election, Grieve was appointed as Attorney General.

He was one of four members of the cabinet who abstained in the May 2013 same-sex marriage vote.

He said that he believed that the Bill had been "badly conceived".

On 22 November 2013, Grieve was reported as stating politicians need to "wake up" to the issue of corruption in some minority communities and that "corruption in parts of the Pakistani community is 'endemic. Two days later he apologised and said he had not meant to suggest there was a "particular problem in the Pakistani community".

He was dismissed as Attorney General by Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the 2014 Cabinet reshuffle, and was replaced by Jeremy Wright.

Grieve was sacked from the cabinet by David Cameron in July 2014 and replaced by Jeremy Wright.

Grieve believed this was because of his support for the European Court of Human Rights, although no reason was given; the sacking also occurred a few weeks after Grieve gave Cameron incorrect legal advice on whether he could make a public comment on the Andy Coulson trial.

He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 2016, and broadcasts in French on French radio and television.

He is a practising Anglican and was a member of the London diocesan synod of the Church of England.

Elected as a Conservative, Grieve had the Conservative whip removed in the September 2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs.

He unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate in Beaconsfield at the 2019 general election.

A liberal conservative, Grieve was a central figure on Brexit and frequently used his experience as a lawyer to propose amendments on the issue, with his interventions often being at odds with government policy.

A prominent Remain supporter on Brexit, Grieve called for a second referendum on EU membership, and before being expelled had said that he and other Conservative rebels would support a vote of no confidence to bring down a Conservative government, if that were the only way to block the "catastrophic" damage from a bad Brexit.

In spring 2019, Grieve was threatened with deselection by his local party after losing a confidence vote by members.

In October 2019, following removal of the whip, Grieve announced that he would stand as an independent candidate in his constituency's seat at the next general election.

It was announced that the Liberal Democrats would stand aside to help him, but to no avail, as he lost his seat.

Grieve is the president of the Franco-British Society.

Grieve was elected with a majority of 13,987 votes and remained the MP there until his defeat in the 2019 general election.