FORMER Tory defence secretary Grant Shapps has been cleared by the parliamentary standards watchdog to join a defence start-up.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) has been criticised for allowing Shapps, no longer an MP, to become the chair of Cambridge Aerospace – as long as he promises not to work on defence matters.
Acoba, which is due to be scrapped due to its ineffectiveness, deals with applications from former ministers and civil servants on new employment roles after leaving government. It ensures compliance with the Business appointment rules, which apply for one or two years after the official or minister has left their government role.
Shapps served as defence secretary between August 2023 and July 2024, which falls within the grace period where former ministers must apply to Acoba if they want to take up a role in the private sector.
Cambridge Aerospace was founded three months after the July 2024 general election, where the Tories suffered a bruising loss and Shapps lost his Welwyn Hatfield seat.
According to The Guardian, Shapps told the watchdog that the firm planned to “develop technologies to reduce risks to aviation”, citing the example of airport delays caused by drones.
Acoba agreed he could take up the position at the company to provide “strategic direction and high-level advice”, as long as he did not consult on matters relating to defence.
The watchdog appeared to agree with Shapps’s description of Cambridge Aerospace as a company focusing on "civilian aerospace”.
However, the company, which has attracted £73.9 million ($100m) in funding, outlined its plans to investors as a “defence tech” firm. It also referred to the need to prepare for a “new era of warfare”.
Professor Steven Barret, the firm’s co-founder and acquaintance of Shapps, told Bloomberg last month that Cambridge Airspace’s “one mission” is to “protect the UK and our allies from the well-known threats we face from the skies”.
Skyhammer, the company’s first product, can be used to intercept drones and cruise missiles, with comparisons being drawn to Israel’s Iron Dome.
Acoba told Shapps there was a “limited” risk of a conflict of interest.
“Whilst you will have had oversight of a wide range of information on policy, operations and matters generally affecting defence, there is no direct overlap with your access to sensitive information as this work focuses on civilian aerospace,” advice sent to the former Tory minister said.
A spokesperson for Transparency International said: “Oversight of this revolving door rests on little more than gentlemen’s agreements, with no means in practice of enforcing the business appointment rules.
“It will just invite abuse until the rules governing former ministers entering the private sector are tightened, and properly enforced.”
Shapps told the Guardian: “I joined Cambridge Aerospace because I have always believed in the importance of protecting our civilian airspace — a belief only strengthened by witnessing the devastation caused by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
“As the company has grown, so too have the threats facing our nation. Our mission is to develop technology that can save lives, strengthen UK and allied security, and create highly skilled British jobs. I’m proud to be a founding partner in a business dedicated to those goals.”
Acoba said it had told Shapps not to engage on defence matters while serving in the role as chair for two years.
A spokesperson added: “The committee also took into account that as a qualified pilot since 1995, Mr Shapps had a long-term interest in aviation, unrelated to his time in ministerial office.”
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to replace Acoba with a tougher system of checks on roles ministers take on after leaving office.
