Stephen Crabb (born 20 January 1973) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Preseli Pembrokeshire from 2005 to 2024 and Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from 2020.

A member of the Welsh Conservatives, he served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from March to July 2016 under Prime Minister David Cameron.

[6] Crabb has said that his early experiences informed his views on welfare: "The most powerful thing to me, looking back, is the way that my mother went through a crisis in her life and became welfare-dependent.

[11] In 1998, whilst living in London, Crabb was elected as the chairman of the Southwark North and Bermondsey Conservative Association, a position he held until 2000.

He finished in second place, but at the 2005 general election, he gained the seat from Labour with a majority of 607 votes, becoming one of three Welsh Conservative MPs who ended the "Tory free zone" that had existed in Wales since 1997.

[17] The Conservative Party website describes Crabb as someone who "takes a strong interest in international development and believes firmly in the importance of UK aid".

[20] Labour's Owen Smith, whose parliamentary career has mirrored that of Crabb, called the arrangement "highly unusual and unsatisfactory", adding, "it's unheard of to have a whip also acting as a minister in a department".

[22] In the 2014 Spring Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the British government would compensate energy-intensive industries hit hard by the rising cost of energy.

His citation read: He's recently emerged from the shadowy world of the whips' office at Westminster to become the Welsh Secretary's deputy in the Commons.

The judges were impressed by his confident performance at Welsh Questions, dealing with an increasingly unruly house with the Prime Minister sat beside him, waiting for his turn at the despatch box.

[25] He has said his proudest moment in the post was brokering a deal between the Treasury and the devolved Welsh government to extend the electrification of the Great Western Main Line to Swansea and The Valleys.

"[7] On 2 March 2016, Crabb voted with the government to reduce by £30 per week the amount of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) paid to disabled people newly placed in the cohort of recipients known as the work-related activity group from April 2017.

[28][29][30] In a statement about the outcome of the vote issued on 14 March, Crabb explained: "What this actually means is that those individuals who are considered to be able to work in the future will now access the same level of benefit as those on Jobseekers Allowance, but will be given better-tailored support to help them into employment.

The following week, Debbie Abrahams MP, Labour's spokesperson on disabilities, said: "It doesn't bode well for David Cameron that the man he chooses to make the new work and pensions secretary doesn't even know the status of people in the ESA WRAG", while Jonathan Portes, a former DWP chief economist and an expert on welfare policy, was puzzled that Crabb, as a Cabinet Minister, could vote on important changes to ESA while appearing to be confused about what the vote was about.

[31] On 19 March 2016, Crabb was appointed to succeed Iain Duncan Smith as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the latter's sudden, unexpected resignation over proposed changes to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a disability benefit unrelated to the employment status of the claimant.

[35] In July 2016, Crabb resigned from the post, after admitting to sending sexually explicit messages to a 19-year-old woman he had interviewed for a job while he was Welsh Minister.

[36][37] In June 2016, Crabb announced that he would stand in the Conservative party leadership election, following David Cameron's resignation over the outcome of the 2016 EU membership referendum.

[39][41][42] Crabb promised to create a £100 billion "Growing Britain Fund", which he would use for flood defences, fibre-optic broadband, and Crossrail 2.

In the 2024 General Election, Crabb stood in the new constituency of Mid and South Pembrokeshire, but lost to the labour candidate Henry Tufnell.

[61] In October 2017, newspapers reported that in 2013 a well-known male MP had been sending sexually explicit messages to a 19-year-old female candidate he had interviewed for a role in his office.

[37] Crabb apologised for the text messages, and on 23 December 2017 a Conservative Party investigating panel determined that his behaviour had been inappropriate, but did not constitute harassment.