Christopher James Fraser, OBE (born 25 October 1962) is a former

British Conservative Party The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. The party sits on the centre-right to right- ...

politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Dorset and North Poole from the 1997 general election to

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

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from

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2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Early life

He was born in

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and educated at the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

, graduating with a BA degree. He worked as chairman of a communications company. He was elected as a councillor to the

Three Rivers District Council 3 (three) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cul ...

for four years from 1992.

Parliamentary career

Fraser was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at the 1997 general election for the new seat of Mid Dorset and North Poole with a majority of 681. He made his

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

on 4 July 1997. He lost his seat at the 2001 general election to the Liberal Democrat Annette Brooke. Although his percentage of the vote increased, Fraser was edged out by the Liberal Democrats by 384 votes, after a tactical voting campaign urging Dorset residents to cast their votes in the best way to defeat the incumbent Conservatives and saw his defeat, along with that of Ian Bruce in neighbouring

South Dorset South Dorset is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2024 by Lloyd Hatton, of th ...

. He returned to

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at the 2005 general election for South West Norfolk following the retirement of the former

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

Gillian Shephard Gillian Patricia Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, (''née'' Watts; born 22 January 1940), is a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk from 1987 to 2005. Shephard served as a Cabi ...

. He held the seat with a comfortable majority of 10,086, and managed to achieve a small swing of 0.3 over Labour. He served as a member of the culture, media and sport select committee from 1997 until he lost his seat. He was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Strathclyde, the Shadow

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. Following his re-election in 2005 he was a member of the

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select committee and was appointed to the Northern Ireland Grand Committee. He was Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Northern Ireland Group. He was a member of the UK delegation to the

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and the Assembly of the

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(2005–2007). In 2009 his expenses claims were highlighted in the ''Daily Telegraph''; according to the newspaper, Fraser claimed £1,800 in public money for buying 215 trees and marking out the boundary of his second home in the constituency. The Lynn News reported "In February 2007 Mr Fraser claimed £1,808.28 for new fencing and hedging to provide security for his new constituency home." On 28 May 2009 he announced that he would be standing down as an MP at the next general election citing family reasons. The Telegraph 2010 election website stated that he "stood down on account of his wife's health problems". Fraser was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for public and political service.

Personal life

Fraser married in February 1987 and he has a son and a daughter. He became a

Freeman Freeman, free men, Freeman's or Freemans may refer to: Places United States * Freeman, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Freeman, South Dako ...

of the

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in 1992. He receives income from land and property in London and Dorset.

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Christopher Fraser MP

TheyWorkForYou.com – Christopher Fraser MP

South West Norfolk Conservatives

BBC Politics page

News items

Fens flooding in February 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Christopher Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2005–2010 Officers of the Order of the British Empire Councillors in Hertfordshire 1962 births Living people Alumni of the University of Westminster