Nick Hurd

Early life

After attending Sunningdale School and Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford (where he was a member of the Bullingdon Club), Hurd ran his own business and represented a British bank in Brazil. In 2002, he set up the Small Business Network to advise the Conservative Party on business policy. More recently, he worked as Chief of Staff to Tim Yeo MP, who at the time was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment and Transport, and in the Conservative Research Department.

Parliamentary career

The Hon Nick Hurd MP is currently Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development from November 2015 following the resignation of Grant Shapps until the reshuffle following the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister in July 2016. During the coalition government he was Minister for Civil Society from May 2010 until July 2014, during which time he led the work on setting up the National Citizen Service and Big Society Capital.

He was Chairman of the Climate Change sub-group of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life policy review commission, 2006–2008. He has also served as a member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee (EAC) before becoming a minister. In May 2016, he was given the Green Ribbon Political Award as Parliamentarian of the year (MP), citing his work on the EAC and in promoting action against climate change while at DFID where he led the Energy Africa initiative promoting greater access to sustainable energy.

Hurd came top in the Private Member's Bill ballot in November 2006, and introduced the Sustainable Communities Bill into the House of Commons. This achieved its third reading in June 2007 and after being passed by the House of Lords, the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 received Royal Assent in October 2007.

Hurd was promoted by David Cameron to the Opposition Whips' office in July 2007. He served as Opposition Whip until his appointment as Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering in October 2008.

Personal life

Hurd is eldest son of the Conservative Life Peer, Douglas, Lord Hurd of Westwell formerly Member of Parliament, Foreign Secretary and leadership contender under Baroness Thatcher and successively under Sir John Major.

He is the fourth generation in the male line of his family to be elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative, following his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Hurd met his first wife Kim Richards at Oxford University, and they married at Eton Chapel in 1988. The couple had two sons and two daughters together. In 2008, they divorced after twenty years of marriage. In 2010, he married Lady Clare Kerr, daughter of the Conservative politician Michael Ancram (now Marquess of Lothian), and 17 years Hurd's junior, after meeting at a party the previous year. On 17 May 2012, Lady Clare Hurd gave birth to a baby girl, Leila. A son, Caspar Jamie Hurd, was born 30 September 2014. The new baby is the Lady Clare's (the heiress presumptive) heir apparent to the Lordship Herries of Terregles, currently held by Lady Clare's mother the 16th Lady Herries of Terregles, née Lady Jane Fitzalan-Howard. (Lady Clare is first in line of succession after her mother the Marchioness of Lothian; her son Caspar is now second in line of succession).

He is a Governor of Coteford Junior School, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Grocers.