Greg Clark MP

Greg Clark is the incumbent Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells, elected in 2005, and was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in May 2015.

Born in Middlesborough in 1967, he was educated at South Bank St Peter’s Roman Catholic School, before going on to read Economics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and received a PhD from the London School of Economics in 1992.

After leaving education, he worked as a business consultant before taking a role as special advisor at the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1996.  After leaving the DTI, he worked for the BBC’s Controller of Commercial Policy, and also as Director of Policy for the Conservative Party from 2001 until he was elected to represent Tunbridge Wells in 2005, after Archie Norman stood down.  He gained an majority of 9.988 beating the Liberal Democrat candidate, Laura Murphy into second place.

Initially, Clark was a backbench MP, before David Cameron appointed him to the post of Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprises and Volunteering in 2006, before a move to be Shadow Minister for Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in October 2008.

After his re-election in 2010 with an increased majority of 15,576, Clark was given a role in the Department for Communities and Local Government with a remit of Decentralisation in the coalition government.

In 1992, Clark was appointed to as Financial Secretary to the Treasury with a brief to look after cities policy, which continued in 2014, when he replaced David Willets with a combined portfolio as Minister for Universities, Science and Cities.  This was until the General Election of 2015, where he was returned with an increased majority of 22,874, and a new job as Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government

The main responsibilities for the Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government are overall leadership of the department alongside a specific remit for troubled families.