Would The Real Grant Shapps Please Stand Up?
He made millions as web marketer Michael Green but made waves in the Tory Party as Grant Shapps. Here we profile the Welwyn MP.
Saturday 28 November 2015 15:40, UK
He has gone under a number of names; Michael Green, Grant V Shapps and even his actual name, Grant Shapps.
No surprise, then, that Mr Shapps has been described on more than one occasion as having a touch of the Walter Mitty about him.
Mr Shapps has been MP for Welwyn Hatfield since 2005 but while he was campaigning as the Tory candidate, he was also masquerading as multi-millionaire marketer Michael Green.
There are pictures that show him at an internet conference in Las Vegas in 2004 wearing a badge with his alter-ego's name on.
As Michael Green, he offered clients advice on how to make money from the internet - for £183 a hour.
He always maintained he gave up Michael Green when he became MP and did not have a second job.
He even threatened to take action against a constituent who claimed the former Conservative co-chairman did have a second job.
He maintained it all the way to March this year, when he admitted he did in fact have a second job when he was MP but not all the time.
It's fair to say Mr Shapps has been a controversial figure within the Conservative Party but it didn't stop his advance to become a senior figure in David Cameron's circle.
Mr Shapps, who is married with three children, seconded Mr Cameron's nomination for the Conservative leadership.
In 2007 he was made shadow housing minister but the ultimate loyalty reward came in 2012 when he was made co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, succeeding Baroness Warsi, and Minister Without Portfolio.
He set about putting Conservative Campaign Headquarters on election campaign footing - bringing in the "Wizard of Oz" election strategist Lynton Crosby, who delivered two victories for Boris Johnson as London Mayor.
And he was the man in charge of the 40-40, election-winning strategy to target 40 new marginal and 40 constituencies where Conservatives had a slim majority.
It was this strategy that saw Tory youth activists bussed into these areas to bash on doors and convince people to vote Conservative under the RoadTrip 2015 banner.
The RoadTrip initiative was run by Mark Clarke, the man who would later be accused of bullying by the young activist Elliott Johnson, who is believed to have killed himself because of his treatment by Mr Clarke, who denies any wrongdoing.
Mr Shapps was accused by Mr Johnson's father of ignoring the complaints against Mr Clarke.
Ultimately, it is the toxic allegations of bullying and sexual harassment around Mr Clarke and the youth wing election campaign that have brought down Mr Shapps.
But even before that it was widely viewed that Mr Shapps was on his way out.
Following the admissions in March of a second job there were allegations that Mr Shapps had doctored rivals' Wikipedia pages using a "sock puppet" or false online identity.
Mr Shapps, who had previously admitted editing his own Wikipedia entry, denied the claims and Wikipedia found there was no evidence to link him to the changes that had been made.
Then there were other blunders.
In March 2014 he was ridiculed for a "patronising" tweet after posting: "Budget 2014 cuts bingo & beer tax helping hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy. RT to spread the word."
And he sparked anger with comments made over the so-called "bedroom tax" in 2013, saying his children shared a bedroom.
He was also criticised by the UK Statistics Authority for claiming a million people on disability benefits dropped their claims rather than facing medical checks. The real figure was 19,700.
Then just before the election it transpired he was listed as Grant V Shapps when he signed up as a Conservative candidate, despite having no middle name on either his birth or marriage certificates.
So in May Mr Shapps was booted out of Cabinet and "demoted" to mid-ranking International Development Minister.
It was almost inevitable, then, that Mr Shapps could not weather another storm, so when he was named in the controversy over Mr Johnson's death, the writing was on the wall.