Christopher Chope

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 (1947-05-19) (age 64) 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.

Early life

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 and Marlborough College, 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.

Parliamentary career

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]

Chope has expressed views favouring capital punishment.^{[citation needed]}

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]

Personal life

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).

References

1. ^ Hennessy, Patrick (24 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: Tory Christopher Chope’s £881 bill for repairing sofa". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5375313/MPs-expenses-Tory-Christopher-Chopes-881-bill-for-repairing-sofa.html. Retrieved 14 March 2010. 
2. ^ Nigel Morris, Andy McSmith and Kunal Dutta (13 March 2010). "Tory MP blocks bill targeting 'vulture funds'". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-mp-blocks-bill-targeting-vulture-funds-1920708.html. Retrieved 14 March 2010. 
3. ^ Leo Hickman (26 October 2010). "Cabal of climate sceptics to descend on UK Parliament". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/oct/25/climate-fools-day-sceptics-parliament?INTCMP=SRCH. 
4. ^ "Hillsborough debate delay criticised by Andy Burnham". BBC News (BBC). 12 October 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15277034. Retrieved 23 October 2011. 

External links

• [1] Greg Palast investigates Christopher Chope for BBC's Newsnight
• Christopher Chope MP biography at the site of the Conservative Party
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Christopher Chope MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Christopher Chope MP
• The Public Whip - Christopher Chope MP voting record
• Christchurch Conservatives
• BBC News - Christopher Chope profile 30 March 2006
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Christopher Chope

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

Persondata
Name	Chope, Christopher
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 May 1947
Place of birth	Putney, London
Date of death
Place of death