Chris Heaton-Harris

Early life and education

Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. He attended Wolverhampton Polytechnic, which in 1992 became the University of Wolverhampton.

Heaton-Harris worked for the family business at New Covent Garden Market, before taking over from his father running What4 Ltd for eleven years. At the 1997 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South. He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election.

European Parliament

Heaton-Harris was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as MEP for the East Midlands, and was re-elected in 2004. He was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to March 2004.

Heaton-Harris sat on the Internal Market Committee, responsible for "co-ordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of the internal market and of the customs union", as well as the Central America Delegation and the Bulgaria Delegation.

He was a founding member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, a cross-national, cross-party group of MEPs that campaigns for reforms within the parliament. Its manifesto includes creating one seat for the parliament (in Brussels), cleaning up the system for MEPs' expenses, and improving debate within the parliament.

Heaton-Harris was responsible for bringing the case of Marta Andreasen, the European Commission's Chief Accountant, to public attention in August 2002 and has been involved in fighting fraud, mismanagement and waste within the European Commission and other European institutions.

From May 2006, he sought support within the European Union legislature for a letter to FIFA demanding that the Iranian national football team be thrown out of the 2006 World Cup because of then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust being a lie.

Prior to standing down in 2009, Heaton-Harris was the President of the Sports Intergroup, a group of approximately 40 MEPs who have an interest in sport and sporting issues.

In 2012, Heaton-Harris described himself as a "fierce Eurosceptic".

Parliamentary career

At the 1997 general election Heaton-Harris unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South, finishing second with 23.7% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Jim Marshall He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election, finishing third with 19.7% of the vote behind the Liberal Democrat Parmjit Singh Gill and Labour's Peter Soulsby.

Chris Heaton-Harris was a member of the Conservative A-List and was selected to succeed Tim Boswell as candidate for the safe Conservative constituency of Daventry in June 2006. He was elected as MP for Daventry at the 2010 general election with a majority of 19,188 and 56.5% of the vote.

On 18 May 2024, he announced that he would not seek re-election as an MP at the 2024 general election.

Backbencher

In March 2012, Heaton-Harris was reported as being one of the Conservative MPs to have spoken critically of Party Co-Chairman Sayeeda Warsi at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, following Warsi's handling of Roger Helmer MEP's defection to UKIP.

Ministerial career

At the 2015 general election, Heaton-Harris was re-elected with an increased vote share of 58.2% and an increased majority 21,059. At the snap 2017 general election he was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 63.7% and an increased majority of 21,734.

Heaton-Harris was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, a whips office sinecure, on 15 July 2017. He was promoted to Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Comptroller of the Household on 9 January 2018.

Following the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary and the following resignations of several Conservative ministers on 9 July 2018, Heaton-Harris was appointed as one of three Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. He resigned from this position to support Andrea Leadsom's second Conservative leadership bid, which she lost to Boris Johnson.

On 25 July 2019, he was appointed by Johnson as the Minister of State for Transport.

At the 2019 general election, Heaton-Harris was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 64.6% and an increased majority of 26,080.

He was appointed Minister of State for Europe on 19 December 2021 when ministerial responsibility for Europe was transferred out of the Cabinet Office and to the Foreign Office. In February 2022, he was appointed by Johnson as Chief Whip of the Conservative Party and was subsequently sworn into the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.

Following Liz Truss's appointment as prime minister in September 2022, he was promoted to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. On 8 September he made his first visit to Northern Ireland. He was retained in position by Rishi Sunak when Sunak became prime minister on 25 October 2022. He was secretary of state during the negotiation of the 2023 Windsor Framework.

Hospitality

Heaton-Harris accepted tickets for himself and his family to attend four events at the London 2012 Olympics relating to swimming, diving, gymnastics, and the closing ceremony, as a gift from Coca-Cola. The value of the gifts (£11,750) was the highest amount received by any MP. He declared them in the Register of Members' Interests.

Climate change

In November 2012, covert video footage of Heaton-Harris discussing the role of James Delingpole in the Corby by-election were published on the website of The Guardian. The recording, made by Greenpeace, appeared to show the MP's support for Delingpole's independent, anti-windfarm candidacy, at a time when Heaton-Harris was engaged by the Conservatives to run the unsuccessful campaign of their own candidate, Christine Emmett.

Heaton-Harris indicated that this was linked to a plan by core members of the Conservative Party to emasculate the Climate Change Act by making its commitments advisory rather than mandatory. After Heaton-Harris apologised for the impression he gave in the video, Home Secretary Theresa May said he was guilty only of silly bragging, while Labour's Michael Dugher MP urged Prime Minister David Cameron to show leadership and punish him. The Corby by-election was subsequently lost by the Conservatives with a swing to Labour of 12.8 per cent.

Letters to universities

In October 2017, Heaton-Harris, a Eurosceptic, wrote to the vice-chancellors of every university in the UK, requesting the names of academics lecturing on Brexit and copies of all course material, leading to claims of political interference in academic freedom, as well as censorship. The move was described as "McCarthyite" by Professor Kevin Featherstone, head of the European Institute at the London School of Economics, and "sinister" by Professor David Green, the vice-Chancellor of Worcester University who likened it to Newspeak and the Thought Police from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Dean of Durham Law School, Thom Brooks, called it "dog whistle politics at its worst", while Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, called the letter an act of "idiotic and offensive Leninism". In addition, the letter attracted criticism from both pro-Remain and pro-Leave academics at Cambridge and London's Queen Mary universities, and a rebuke from Downing Street.

Responding the next day to the widespread criticism from both politicians and academics, universities minister Jo Johnson suggested that Heaton-Harris might have been researching a possible book on "the evolution of attitudes" to Europe, rather than acting in his role as a government minister, and "probably didn't appreciate the degree to which (the letter) would be misinterpreted", although there was no mention of any research for a possible book in the original letter. On 17 February 2019, Heaton-Harris said that there had never been any plans for a book.

European Research Group

Heaton-Harris chaired the European Research Group (ERG), a group of Eurosceptic MPs, from 2010 until November 2016. Subscriptions totalling £13,850 were claimed as a parliamentary expense. At the same time he sat on the wide-ranging powers of the European Scrutiny Committee,

Documents from the House of Commons catering department released via Freedom of Information to openDemocracy, show Heaton-Harris hosted an ERG breakfast meeting in October 2017, despite taking over as a government whip in July 2016. Continuing to chair the group while he was a member of the government led to an accusation of violating the Ministerial Code, section 7.12 of which states: "Ministers should take care to ensure that they do not become associated with non-public organisations whose objectives may in any degree conflict with Government policy and thus give rise to a conflict of interest." However, a government spokesperson stated that they did not view it as a breach.

Personal life

Heaton-Harris is married and has two children.

Honours

He was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 16 February 2022 at Windsor Castle. This gave him the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.

References

References

1. (November 2016). "HEATON-HARRIS, Christopher". A & C Black.
2. Madeley, Peter. (31 October 2017). "Brexit voters are 'thick': Labour MP comment sparks fury". Express & Star.
3. "New Covent Garden Market — [Mr Philip Hollobone in the Chair] – in Westminster Hall at 3:54 pm on 2nd July 2019.".
4. "Chris Heaton-Harris".
5. "Chris Heaton-Harris MP".
6. "About Chris".
7. (17 February 2006). "EU backs weak compromise on freeing up its services market.". The Telegraph.
8. (28 November 1967). "Chris Heaton-Harris MEP". European Parliament.
9. (12 January 2005). "MEPs to fight parliament's gravy train image". EU Observer.
10. (14 October 2004). "EU fires whistle-blower accountant". [[The New York Times]].
11. (11 May 2006). "EU member wants Iran out of World Cup". MSNBC.
12. Rojas, John-Paul Ford. (14 November 2012). "Chris Heaton Harris: windfarm opponent and Eurosceptic". The Daily Telegraph.
13. "Election Data 1997". [[Electoral Calculus]].
14. "[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/constituency/1074/leicester-south Leicester South]", ''[[Guardian Online]]''
15. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 2001–2005 Parliament".
16. "ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Where are the original A-Listers now? The 18 who have been selected for Conservative seats".
17. "Election Data 2010". [[Electoral Calculus]].
18. (July 2019)
19. [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b32.stm Daventry], BBC
20. Heaton-Harris, Chris. (18 May 2024). "After 24 years in politics I won't be standing at the next election. It's been an honour and a privilege to serve and I'd like to thank the good people of Daventry, @theresa_may @BorisJohnson @trussliz @RishiSuna for putting their trust in me.".
21. (2024-05-18). "Chris Heaton-Harris not standing for re-election". BBC News.
22. [http://politics.standard.co.uk/2012/03/tories-give-warsi-both-barrels.html Tories give Warsi both barrels] {{webarchive. link. (10 March 2012)
23. "Election Data 2015". [[Electoral Calculus]].
24. "MPs and Lords". UK Parliament.
25. "Chris Heaton-Harris MP". GOV.UK.
26. "Minister of State Chris Heaton-Harris MP".
27. "Daventry parliamentary constituency – Election 2019".
28. "Ministerial appointments: 19 December 2021".
29. [https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Part-0-combined.pdf ORDERS APPROVED AND BUSINESS TRANSACTED AT THE PRIVY COUNCIL HELD BY THE QUEEN AT WINDSOR CASTLE ON 16TH FEBRUARY 2022]
30. (2022-09-08). "Chris Heaton-Harris makes first visit as NI Secretary". BBC News.
31. "Who is Chris Heaton-Harris? All you need to know about Northern Ireland's new Secretary of State". belfasttelegraph.
32. (15 July 2021). "Ten MPs accept Euro football tickets from betting firms". BBC News.
33. (13 November 2012). "Tory MP running Corby campaign 'backed rival in anti-windfarm plot'". [[The Guardian]].
34. (14 November 2012). "Tory MP escapes discipline over anti-windfarm comments". The Guardian.
35. Eaton, George. (16 November 2012). "Labour triumphs in Corby by-election". [[New Statesman]].
36. Gray, Jasmin. (26 October 2017). "Daily Mail's Attack On 'Remainer Universities' And 'Anti-Brexit' Academics Sparks Backlash". Huffington Post.
37. (24 October 2017). "Tory MP's Brexit demand to universities 'offensive' – Lord Patten". [[BBC News]].
38. Fazackerley, Anna. (24 October 2017). "Universities deplore 'McCarthyism' as MP demands list of tutors lecturing on Brexit". The Guardian.
39. (24 October 2017). "No 10 disowns Tory whip accused of 'McCarthyite' behaviour". The Guardian.
40. Kentish, Ben. (24 October 2017). "Conservative MP demands universities give him names of lecturers teaching about Brexit". The Independent.
41. (25 October 2017). "MP's Brexit letter to universities 'was research for book'". BBC News.
42. "Fanatical Tory who demanded names of lecturers for book admits 'there isn't a book'". The National.
43. "MP expense claims for subscriptions to the ERG since 2010".
44. (19 January 2018). "Brexit: The history of the Tories' influential European Research Group". BBC News.
45. "Chris Heaton-Harris Daventry CC Conservative". Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
46. "European Scrutiny Committee". UK Parliament.
47. Ramsay, Adam. (29 January 2018). "MPs demand 'urgent investigation' into Cabinet ministers' support for hard-Brexit lobby group". openDemocracy.
48. King, Ceri. (16 February 2022). "ORDERS APPROVED AND BUSINESS TRANSACTED AT THE PRIVY COUNCIL HELD BY THE QUEEN AT WINDSOR CASTLE ON 16TH FEBRUARY 2022".