Associated British Ports Holdings Ltd owns and operates 21 ports in the United Kingdom, managing around 25 per cent of the UK's sea-borne trade. The company's activities cover transport, haulage and terminal operations, ship's agency, dredging and marine consultancy.

Ports formerly owned by rail and canal companies were nationalised in 1947 by Clement Attlee's post world war 2 Labour government. The commission was split in 1962 by the Transport Act 1962; the British Transport Docks Board (BTDB) was formed in 1962 as a government-owned body to manage various ports throughout Great Britain.

In 1981 the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher implemented the Transport Act 1981, which provided for the BTDB's privatisation. Because of BTDB's statutory powers as a harbour operator, a straightforward conversion to limited company status was impractical. Instead, BTDB was renamed as Associated British Ports (ABP) and a limited company, Associated British Ports Holdings Ltd, was created, with the same powers in law over ABP as a holding company has over a subsidiary.

David William Donald Cameron (pronunciation: /ˈkæmərən/; born 9 October 1966) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. He represents Witney as its Member of Parliament (MP).

Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.

He was defeated in his first candidacy for Parliament at Stafford in 1997, but was elected in 2001 as the Member of Parliament for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of policy co-ordination during the 2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a youthful, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Conservative leadership election in 2005.