Chris Heaton-Harris
Chris Heaton-Harris
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Chris Heaton-Harris

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Chris Heaton-Harris

Christopher Heaton-Harris (born 28 November 1967) is a British former politician who served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from September 2022 to July 2024, and as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from February to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry from 2010 to 2024.

Born in Epsom, Heaton-Harris attended Tiffin School. He went on to study at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, before working in his family business. He was elected to the European Parliament as MEP for the East Midlands in 1999, and was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives there from 2001 to 2004. He was reelected in the 2004 election before standing down in 2009. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, Heaton-Harris was elected as MP for Daventry in the 2010 general election. He was reelected in both the 2015 and 2017 general election. On the backbenches, he was Chair of the European Research Group from 2010 to 2016.

Heaton-Harris joined the government frontbench in 2017 under Prime Minister Theresa May as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, before serving as Comptroller of the Household Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from January to July 2018. Under May, he later served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2018 to 2019. Under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he served as Minister of State for Transport from 2019 to 2021 and as Minister of State for Europe from 2021 to 2022. In February 2022, he was appointed to the Cabinet as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and was sworn in as a privy counsellor. After Liz Truss became prime minister, Heaton-Harris was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; an office he continued in under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. After serving in parliament for 14 years, Heaton-Harris stood down at the 2024 general election.

Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. He attended Wolverhampton Polytechnic, which in 1992 became the University of Wolverhampton.

Heaton-Harris worked for the family business at New Covent Garden Market, before taking over from his father running What4 Ltd for eleven years. At the 1997 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South. He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election.

Heaton-Harris was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as MEP for the East Midlands, and was re-elected in 2004. He was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to March 2004.

Heaton-Harris sat on the Internal Market Committee, responsible for "co-ordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of the internal market and of the customs union", as well as the Central America Delegation and the Bulgaria Delegation.

He was a founding member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, a cross-national, cross-party group of MEPs that campaigns for reforms within the parliament. Its manifesto includes creating one seat for the parliament (in Brussels), cleaning up the system for MEPs' expenses, and improving debate within the parliament.

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