Christopher Mark Francis White (born 28 April 1967 in Australia) is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Warwick and Leamington Warwick and Leamington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2017 general election by Matt Western of the Labour Party. Boundaries 1885–1918: The existing parliamentary borough of Warwick, the ...

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 university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

Education

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

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, where he obtained a

BEng A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Bac ...

in Engineering, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

Career

White unsuccessfully contested the Labour stronghold of Birmingham Hall Green at the 2001 general election, then the marginal

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'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 and a patron of the

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...

-based peacebuilding charity Cord. White proposed the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 in 2010 as a

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

, 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 "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

prior to the 2016 referendum. In February 2016 he was elected chair of the Committees on Arms Export Controls. 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

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