Sebastian Grigg, 4th Baron Altrincham

The Right Honourable The Lord Altrincham
Official portrait, 2023
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as an elected hereditary peer 23 June 2021
Preceded by	The 3rd Baron Selsdon
Personal details
Born	Edward Sebastian Grigg (1965-12-18) 18 December 1965
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Rachel Kelly
Children	5
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford

Edward Sebastian Grigg, 4th Baron Altrincham (born 18 December 1965), is a British hereditary peer and Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Early life

Grigg was educated at Oriel College, Oxford.

Business career

After working at Goldman Sachs, Grigg became head of investment banking at Credit Suisse UK in 2007. He advised HM Treasury on the recapitalisations of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds in October 2008 as part of a Credit Suisse team working from a makeshift office in one of the Treasury's corridors. He left Credit Suisse in 2016. He is a non-executive director of The Co-operative Bank.

Political career

Grigg unsuccessfully stood for the House of Commons for the Heywood and Middleton constituency in Manchester in 1997, aged 31, while working as a junior banker at Goldman Sachs. This period was described in his wife Rachel Kelly's memoir about her experience of depression and recovery. He wrote the afterword to Black Rainbow describing her depression and his experience of being a Parliamentary candidate while working for Goldman Sachs and this was subsequently republished in the Evening Standard in 2014 including these lines:

This is the story of how we muddled through together. We tried to combine a career at Goldman Sachs with a career at The Times. We tried working mother. We tried stay-at-home mother. We tried the choices. We found that there is no road map, no safe harbour, no safe roles. But we also found extraordinary joy, extraordinary friendships and the blessing of children.

He took the oath to enter the House of Lords as Lord Altrincham on 1 July 2021. He made his maiden speech on 13 October 2021, talking about his wife's depression, working as a banker, standing for Parliament in 1997 and his family's history. He was a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Integration of Primary and Community Care, which published the report "Patients at the centre: integrating primary and community care" in December 2023. He is a member of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee and the House of Lords Finance Bill Sub Committee.

Peerage

Grigg is the grandson of Edward Grigg, who became the first Baron Altrincham in 1945. He had been Governor of Kenya, Member of Parliament for the Altrincham constituency in Cheshire from 1933 to 1945 and then British Government Minister-Resident for the Middle East based in Cairo in 1944 following the assassination of Lord Moyne. On his death in 1955, the title passed to the writer and journalist John Grigg whose life as Lord Altrincham was partly recreated in Season 2 of The Crown. The Peerage Act 1963 made it possible to disclaim a title for life. The first title to be disclaimed was Viscount Stansgate, the politician Tony Benn. The second title to be disclaimed under the Act was Lord Altrincham.

The Altrincham title passed to John Grigg's brother Anthony Grigg in 2001 and then to his son Edward Sebastian Grigg in 2020. The current Lord Altrincham was then elected as a hereditary peer to the House of Lords in June 2021 in a Conservative hereditary peers' by-election. Viscount Stansgate was elected as a member of the House of Lords in July 2021 in a Labour hereditary peers' by-election, thereby returning the first and second titles disclaimed in 1963 to the House of Lords. His oldest son, the Hon. Edward Grigg, a barrister at 4 New Square, is heir to the Altrincham title.