Andrew Griffith has been moved from the position of City minister, during yesterday’s string of Tory cabinet reshuffles.
Griffith will now take the role of Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, replacing Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman.
Griffith, who has been MP for Arundel & South Downs for four years, held the Economic Secretary to the Treasury & City Minister role since October last year.
In a LinkedIn post late on Monday evening, he said:
‘We’re on the forefront of revolutionary technological development and I look forward to building on my work as City Minister to unleash capital to support these exciting opportunities.’
Griffith had been vocal in attacking the FCA’s consumer duty rules on admin and lawsuit concerns. He had also been an advocate for abolishing inheritance tax.
Griffith is replaced by the former Freshfields and HSBC man Bim Afolami. Citywire has run the rule over a man who has shown an unusual zeal for ‘smart regulation.’
Moving into the City minister position is Bim Afolami, MP for Hitchin and Harpenden. Afolami was previously a corporate lawyer, and later a HSBC banker.
A brutal sport, politics.
Andrew Griffith was forced to grin and bear it amongst the City’s great and good at last night’s Lord Mayor’s Banquet, with the news breaking of his move to the business department landing halfway through the confit duck main course.
PLSA conference delegates will remember being palmed off by a keynote delivered by Griffith byt Zoom that appeared barely rehearsed.
In October he spoke for the Treasury and DWP on Pensions, today he is not.
Andrew Griffith
The first question for Andrew Griffith should be: Can you explain the present position with the Rosalind Franklin megalab in Leamington Spa? (Now closed with the facility in the hands of estate agents) The second should be: How much was spent on this Covid testing facility? (Widely believed to be £1.1 billion rather than the original £550 million) The third should be: How much of this investment was lost on this facility?
To quote the local MP: “We were told that even beyond the pandemic it would have use, a function as a diagnostic testing centre for cancer, cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases and here we are such a short period after and they’re already trying to dispose of it on the quiet.”
And they are asking us to invest our pension funds in their “productive investments”.
Hello Henry,
I suggest that Andrew Griffith is possibly very happy to be moved…!
Nevertheless where does it leave the City with yet another new man who may well have gone after the next Election. As for the new Chancellor, the (EU) Europeans are likely to be a long time being impressed.
Kind regards,
Tim Simpson