Introduction
Kate Elizabeth Griffiths (née Kniveton) is a British Conservative Party politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Burton.
Early life and career
Kate Elizabeth Kniveton was born in Burton upon Trent. She was privately educated at St. Wystan's School in Repton and Derby High School, Derbyshire. Kniveton studied classics at Exeter University. She worked for five years as the corporate hospitality coordinator for the football club Burton Albion.
Political career
She married Burton MP Andrew Griffiths in 2013. They had a daughter in 2018. He resigned as small business minister and was suspended from the Conservative Party after The Sunday Mirror reported that he had sent up to 2,000 sexually explicit text messages over a three-week period in 2018 to two women. Griffiths reported that she left him the day that he had told her about it, and that she had later started divorce proceedings.
Griffiths stood for reselection as the Conservative candidate for Burton in the 2019 general election. The vote on his reselection ended in a tie. He then withdrew his candidacy rather than face a second vote in which he would face other candidates including his estranged wife. Kate Griffiths was selected in the subsequent contest. Her campaign focussed on promises on local issues such as investment in the local area's high streets, and national issues including Brexit. She also pledged to be an advocate for domestic abuse survivors.
Griffiths was elected as MP for Burton in the 2019 general election with a majority of 14,496.