| Christopher Chope OBE MP |
|
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Christchurch |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 May 1997 |
|
| Preceded by | Diana Maddock |
| Majority | 15,410 (31.2%) |
| Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen |
|
| In office 9 June 1983 – 9 April 1992 |
|
| Preceded by | Bob Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | John Denham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 May 1947 Putney, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Christine Mary Hutchinson |
| Alma mater | University of St Andrews |
Christopher Robert Chope OBE (born 19 May 1947) is a British barrister and Conservative politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Christchurch.
Contents |
Christopher Chope was born in Putney, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, the son of a judge, and was educated at the Independent St Andrew's School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and Marlborough College, Wiltshire, before attending Queen's College of the University of St Andrews where he was awarded an LLB degree in 1970, and finished his education at the Inns of Court School of law. Chope was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1972.
Chope was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth in 1974 and became the council leader in 1979; he left the council on his first election to Parliament in 1983. He was awarded the OBE for his services to local government in 1982. He was one of the pioneers in the selling off of council housing stock and aggressively reducing council spending, which earned him the sobriquet "Chopper" Chope.
He was elected as an MP at the 1983 general election for Southampton Itchen where he defeated the SDP (and previously Labour) MP Bob Mitchell by 5,290 votes and became the first Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen since the constituency was created in 1950.
Chope was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Peter Brooke, the Minister of State at the Treasury in 1986, before being promoted by Margaret Thatcher to serve in her government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment later in the same year, where he was responsible for steering through the poll tax, or "Community Charge", legislation. He was moved under the leadership of John Major to serve in the same rank at the Department of Transport from 1990 until he lost his Southampton Itchen seat to John Denham at the 1992 general election.
After his defeat, Chope took up a consultancy with Ernst & Young in 1992, but was re-elected at the 1997 general election for the Christchurch constituency. In 1997, he became a spokesman on the Environment, Transport and the Regions as well as being the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party under William Hague, but left the frontbench later that year when he became a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee. He returned to the frontbench after the 2001 election as a spokesman on the Treasury. In 2002, he moved to Transport, then left frontbench politics after the 2005 general election. He currently serves on the Panel of Chairs.
Chope was chairman of the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward group and used to be a barrister in the Chambers of Peter Rawlinson.
On 10 February 2009, he called for the minimum wage to be abolished. His Employment Opportunities Bill, which would, according to Chope, introduce more freedom to the job market and decrease unemployment, was backed by ten other Conservative MPs at the first reading, among them Edward Leigh, David Wilshire, Nigel Evans, Bill Cash and Peter Bone.
Later that year, in the expenses scandal, it emerged that Chope had claimed £136,992 in parliamentary expenses in 2007/08. This included claiming £881 to repair a sofa.[1]
On 12 March 2010, he was responsible for the blocking of a bill to protect the world's poorest countries from debt sharks use of "vulture funds", despite his party's support for the bill.[2]
In October of 2010, Chope also used Parliamentary privilege to help host a meeting of climate-change deniers at Westminster, speaking on the subject of how best to lobby and legislate his own personal agenda of non-evidence based climate change denial [3]
On 11 October 2011 Chope raised an 11th hour objection to the Hillsborough debate taking place because he believed a debate about MP's pensions is more important. Cries of 'shame' echoed around the chamber and Labour MP Jamie Reed said that the perpetrator should be 'named and shamed' for raising the objection.[4]
Chope helped to lead the backbench support for the motion calling for a European Referendum. He has also been heavily involved in the use of Private Members Bills to achieve this aim.[5]
He married Christine Mary Hutchinson in April 1987 in Poole and they have a daughter called Antonia (born February 1990) and a son called Philip (born August 1992).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Bob Mitchell |
Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen 1983–1992 |
Succeeded by John Denham |
| Preceded by Diana Maddock |
Member of Parliament for Christchurch 1997–present |
Incumbent |