Chris White (politician)
Chris White | |
|---|---|
 White in 2012 | |
| Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington | |
| In office 6 May 2010 – 3 May 2017 | |
| Preceded by | James Plaskitt |
| Succeeded by | Matt Western |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 April 1967[1][2] |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester University of Bath |
| Website | www |
Christopher Mark Francis White[3] (born 28 April 1967 in Australia)[4][1][2] is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick and Leamington from 2010 to 2017. He lost the seat at the 2017 general election.[5] White is currently Director of the Institute for Industrial Strategy at King's College London.[6]
Education
[edit]White was educated at the state comprehensive St. Gregory's Catholic School, Tunbridge Wells, followed by the University of Manchester, where he obtained a BEng in Engineering, and an MBA from the University of Bath.[2]
Career
[edit]White unsuccessfully contested the Labour stronghold of Birmingham Hall Green at the 2001 general election, then the marginal Warwick and Leamington at the 2005 general election, but was again unsuccessful.[7] In May 2008, he was elected to Warwick District Council. At the 2010 general election, he gained Warwick and Leamington for the Conservatives, receiving 20,876 votes to the incumbent Labour MP James Plaskitt's 17,363 votes, winning by a margin of 3,513 votes. White had a notional swing of 8.8% from Labour to his party (the boundaries had been changed since the previous election). He held the seat in the 2015 general election with an increased vote of 24,249 (47.9%), leading with a majority of 6,606 votes over Labour's Lynnette Kelly.
He is Vice-Chair of cross-party UK think tank Policy Connect[8] and a patron of the Leamington Spa-based peacebuilding charity Cord.[9]
White proposed the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in 2010 as a private member's bill,[10] aiming to ensure that public sector procurement should take into account wider value to the community provided by suppliers. The bill, which purported to help social enterprises win more public services contracts, was supported by the government and became law in 2013[11] He was subsequently named as a "Social Value Ambassador" by the government,[12] but was dismissed from the role four months later following rebelling on a vote to intervene militarily in Syria.[citation needed]
White was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.[13]
In February 2016 he was elected chair of the Committees on Arms Export Controls.[14][15]
In the 2017 general election, he lost his seat to the Labour candidate, Matt Western. In May 2018, White was announced as the inaugural Director of the Institute for Industrial Strategy at King's College London.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Democracy Live — Your representatives — Chris White". BBC. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ "No. 61230". The London Gazette. 18 May 2015. p. 9126.
- ^ "Biography for Chris White". MyParliament. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
- ^ "BBC News Election 2017 Results Warwick and Leamington". 9 June 2017.
- ^ a b "news-article | News Centre | King's College London". www.kcl.ac.uk.
- ^ "Candidate Profile: Chris White". Leamington Courier. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
- ^ "Our board – Policy Connect". www.policyconnect.org.uk.
- ^ "Chris White MP". Conservatives.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ^ "Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill". 19 November 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
- ^ "Significant boost to social enterprises as the Social Value Act comes into force". Gov.uk Press Release. 31 January 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ^ "First official Social Value Ambassador announced". Gov.uk Press Release. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ^ Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ^ "Chris White MP elected as Chair". House of Commons. UK Parliament. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ^ Cahal Milmo (10 March 2016). "Saudi Arabia's use of British weapons in Yemen to be investigated by Parliamentary commission". The Independent. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
