Christopher Mark Francis White (born 28 April 1967 in Australia) is a British

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician and was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for Warwick and Leamington from 2010 to 2017. He lost the seat at the 2017 general election. White is currently Director of the Institute for Industrial Strategy at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

Education

White was educated at the state comprehensive St. Gregory's Catholic School, Tunbridge Wells, followed by the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, where he obtained a

BEng A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

in Engineering, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

Career

White unsuccessfully contested the Labour stronghold of

Birmingham Hall Green Birmingham Hall Green is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Tahir Ali of the Labour Party. It has become in recent years a Labour sa ...

at the 2001 general election, then the

marginal Marginal may refer to: * ''Marginal'' (album), the third album of the Belgian rock band Dead Man Ray, released in 2001 * ''Marginal'' (manga) * '' El Marginal'', Argentine TV series * Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in polit ...

Warwick and Leamington at the 2005 general election, but was again unsuccessful. 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 James Andrew Plaskitt (born 23 June 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick and Leamington from 1997 until his defeat at the 2010 general election. Early life Born in Grimsby, Plaskitt wa ...

'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 Policy Connect is an independent, cross-party not-for-profit organization with two decades in policy work, overseeing the research and delivery of more than 50 key publications. The think tank has a history of running forums, commissions and All ...

and a patron of the

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

-based peacebuilding charity

Cord Cord or CORD may refer to: People * Alex Cord (1933–2021), American actor and writer * Chris Cord (born 1940), American racing driver * Errett Lobban Cord (1894–1974) American industrialist * Ronnie Cord (1943–1986), Brazilian singer * Co ...

. White proposed the

Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act calls for all public sector commissioning to factor in ("have regard to") economic, social and environmental well-being in connection with publ ...

in 2010 as a private member's bill, 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 He was subsequently named as a "Social Value Ambassador" by the government, but was dismissed from the role four months later following rebelling on a vote to intervene militarily in Syria. White was opposed to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

prior to the 2016 referendum. In February 2016 he was elected chair of the

Committees on Arms Export Controls The Committees on Arms Export Controls (formerly the Quadripartite Committee) is the name for the concurrent meeting of four House of Commons select committees, comprising the International Trade Select Committee, the Defence Select Committee, t ...

. In the 2017 general election, he lost his seat to the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate,

Matt Western Matthew Raymond Western (born 7 November 1962) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick & Leamington since the snap 2017 general election. He was re-elected in the 2019 general election. E ...

. In May 2018, White was announced as the inaugural Director of the Institute for Industrial Strategy at

References

External links

*
Chris White MP
Conservative Party profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Chris 1967 births Living people Alumni of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Bath Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 Australian emigrants to England