Helen Grant OBE is a politician who represented Maidstone and The Weald as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2010 until the constituency was abolished in 2024.

She made history as the first black woman of mixed heritage to be elected as a Conservative MP and selected as a candidate for a Conservative-held parliamentary seat.

In January 2021, Helen was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Girls’ Education and also serves as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria.

Previously, Helen held several ministerial roles including Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society from October 2013 to March 2015, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, and Minister for the Courts and Victims from September 2012 to October 2013.

She studied law at Hull University and practiced as a family solicitor after qualifying in 1988. In 1996, she established Grants Solicitors, focusing on family law and the challenges of family breakdown.

Helen served on the Justice Select Committee until 2011 and contributed to the Conservative social justice policy group starting in 2006. Helen has also been involved with Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, where she has authored numerous articles on family policy.

She is married and has two sons.

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