Grant Shapps' email reassuring constituents they're still a 'big responsibility' has one major problem

It’s not even been a week since Grant Shapps was made defence secretary and he’s embarrassing himself again, sending an email to his Welwyn Hatfield constituents to insist he hasn’t forgotten about them now he's been promoted – albeit with one critical mistake.

Mr Shapps, who represents the Hertfordshire seat, sent an email to local residents after succeeding Ben Wallace in the cabinet role on Thursday, according to a post on Twitter by political commentator John Rentoul.

Its opening paragraphs were said to have read: “I am honoured to have been appointed the UK’s new defence secretary. It is a huge responsibility. That said, my other big responsibility is looking after local issues in Welwyn Hatfield, which is why I am writing to you today.

“Firstly, the bus stop on London Road, next to The Crescent, has fallen into a poor state and has a significant amount of vegetation growing both within and around it. This makes accessing it quite difficult.”

Nice to know he’s checking in on his constituents while in charge of the UK’s military…

Except, Mr Shapps didn’t appear to turn on mail merge or any other technical setting to personalise the email, meaning every single one of his constituents was reportedly addressed as simply “Dear…”

Oops.

Since being spotted by Rentoul on Friday, Twitter/X users have been expressing their exasperation at the contents of the email:

Of course, it’s not the first bizarre incident to occur at the hands of Mr Shapps, an MP who’s admitted to using fake names, appeared to edit out Boris Johnson from a photo, and has filmed many outlandish promotional videos in his previous roles as transport secretary and business secretary.

It was only a matter of time, really…

indy100 has contacted Grant Shapps to comment on this story.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.