Political Career
He was MP for Derby North from 1983 until the 1997 election, when he lost his seat. He returned to the House of Commons in 2001 after successfully contesting the East Yorkshire seat.
He had been deputy Chief Whip under John Major between 1993 and 1996 and was Minister of State for Industry at the Department of Trade and Industry from 1996 until the Conservative defeat at the 1997 election.
He rejoined the Government in September 2012 as a Senior Whip and Vice Chamberlain of the Royal Household.
He served under Michael Howard as a shadow minister for Environment and Transport until 2005. In the 2005–10 Parliament he was Chairman of the House of Commons Procedure Committee and on four other House of Commons select committees: the Liaison Committee, Administration Committee, the Committee on Modernisation of the House and the Standards and Privileges Committee. He was re-elected unopposed to the chair of the Procedure Committee in 2010.
As a backbencher he succeeded in amending the UK's licensing law by doubling UK ‘drinking up time’ on licensed premises from ten to twenty minutes.
He is in favour of bringing back capital punishment and spoke out against the Apartheid government of South Africa during the 1980s.
Knight is against unnecessary government regulation. He is a Eurosceptic and is against Britain joining the euro.
An avid motorist, he is critical of initiatives seen as 'anti-car', such as congestion charging, pedestrianisation schemes, speed humps and some ‘park and ride’ proposals.
He was made a Privy Councillor in 1995, entitling him to the style "Right Honourable".
In 2011 he successfully piloted the Estates of Deceased Persons, a Private Member’s Bill through Parliament and which has now become law. The Estates of Deceased Persons Act attracted unanimous support from both Houses of Parliament and the Law Commission. The Estates of Deceased Persons Act makes the distribution of estates fairer.
He is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group and has called on the Government to exempt historic vehicles from MOT tests. In 2007 he was named as one of the 50 most influential people worldwide in the Historic Vehicle Movement. In 2011 he was shortlisted as the ‘Industry Champion of the Year’ by the International Historic Motoring Awards, for his work in supporting the historic and classic car movement.
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