Chris Leslie | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 11 May 2015 – 12 September 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Harriet Harman (acting) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ed Balls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John McDonnell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 7 October 2013 – 11 May 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Ed Miliband | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Rachel Reeves | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Shabana Mahmood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Ed Miliband | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Stephen Timms | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Shabana Mahmood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Christopher Michael Leslie (1972-06-28)28 June 1972 (age 52) Keighley, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Independent (since 2019) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Change UK (2019) Labour and Co-operative (until 2019) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Nicola Murphy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Leeds | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other offices
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Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British business executive and former politician who served as theMember of Parliament (MP) forShipley from1997 to2005 andNottingham East from2010 to2019. A former member of theLabour Party, he defected to formChange UK and later became anindependent politician.
Born inKeighley, Leslie was educated atBingley Grammar School and graduated from theUniversity of Leeds with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Parliamentary Studies and a Master of Arts in Industrial and Labour Studies. After working as an office administrator and political researcher, he was elected to Parliament forShipley aged 24 at the1997 general election.
Leslie was a minister in theDepartment for Constitutional Affairs from 2001 to 2005 but lost his seat at the2005 general election. He was director of theNew Local Government Network think-tank from 2005 until being elected forNottingham East at the2010 general election.
Between May and September 2015, Leslie served asShadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the shadow cabinet of acting Labour leaderHarriet Harman. In 2018, he lost a motion of no confidence by his constituency party. In February 2019, Leslie left Labour alongside six other MPs in protest at the leadership ofJeremy Corbyn to form The Independent Group, laterChange UK.
Leslie was born inKeighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and attendedBingley Grammar School before becoming a student at theUniversity of Leeds, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Parliamentary Studies. From 1994 to 1996, he was an office administrator and gained a Master of Arts in Industrial and Labour Studies in 1996, afterwards becoming a political research assistant inBradford. He was elected to Parliament a month before his 25th birthday.[1][2]
At the age of 25, Leslie gained the seat ofShipley as aLabourCo-operative candidate in the1997 general election defeatingMarcus Fox, the chairman of the Conservative1922 Committee and Shipley'sConservative MP since 1970. In the process, Leslie overturned a 12,382 majority, to return a 2,966 majority of his own. It was the neighbouring seat to his hometown ofKeighley, another seat taken by Labour from the Conservatives in 1997.
Leslie was theBaby of the House when he first entered the Commons, remaining so until June 2000 whenDavid Lammy, three weeks Leslie's junior, was elected.[1] He was appointedParliamentary private secretary toLord Falconer for three-and-a-half years. Leslie held his seat in 2001, but his majority was reduced by a half to 1,428.
Shortly before his 30th birthday, he became a junior minister in theCabinet Office in 2001, following the recent election. In 2002, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister. He then moved to spend almost two years as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in theDepartment for Constitutional Affairs, working again under Falconer from 2003 to 2005.[1] He never rebelled against a Government position during his first time in Parliament[3] including voting in favour of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.[4]
In the2005 general election, Leslie lost his seat to Conservative candidatePhilip Davies, by fewer than 500 votes.[1]
Leslie ledGordon Brown's successful (and uncontested)campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2007.[5][6] Having lost his seat in Shipley, in 2005, he became the director of theNew Local Government Network, which was described in theLocal Government Chronicle in 2001 as a "Blairite think-tank".[7][8]
On 14 April 2010, he was selected as the Labour parliamentary candidate forNottingham East in the general election campaign, after theNational Executive Committee imposed a shortlist and selection panel, following the late resignation of the MPJohn Heppell.[9][10]
Leslie returned to Parliament at the2010 general election, representingNottingham East.
Leslie supportedEd Balls for the leadership of the Labour Party during the2010 leadership election following the resignation of Gordon Brown, voting forDavid Miliband as his second preference.
In September 2011, he stood in the shadow cabinet elections but missed out on becoming a shadow cabinet minister, however he was promoted to Her Majesty's Opposition becomingShadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury. On 7 October 2013, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet, becomingShadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In May 2015, he was promoted toShadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, replacingEd Balls, who had lost his parliamentary seat in the2015 general election. In this role he opposed Labour's proposals for rent controls,[11] while receiving income as a residential landlord himself.[12]
Leslie supportedYvette Cooper in the2015 Labour leadership election, and was critical of the economic policies ofJeremy Corbyn, calling them "starry-eyed, hard left".[13] On 12 September 2015, Leslie resigned from the Labour front bench following the election of Corbyn as party leader. Leslie is a supporter ofLabour Friends of Israel[14] andLabour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.[15]
In June 2018 Leslie published a pamphlet through theSocial Market Foundation, where he is a member of the Policy Advisory Board,[16] entitledCentre Ground: Six Values of Mainstream Britain.[17] In August the same yearThe Guardian reported that "many saw the document as laying the intellectual groundwork for a future new [political] party,"[18] however Leslie denied this.[19]
In September 2018, Leslie lost a vote of no confidence brought by hisConstituency Labour Party and became the fourth Labour MP to have such a motion passed against him. The motion, brought by members of theMapperley branch of Nottingham East, criticised Leslie for his "disloyalty and deceit", which it dubbed "a severe impediment to Labour Party electability", and as "incompatible" with Leslie continuing as the Labour candidate.[20] Leslie did not attend the vote and had earlier remarked that the party had been infiltrated by the "intolerant hard left".[21] Centrist Labour MPs rallied around Leslie online.[22]
On 18 February 2019, Leslie and six other MPs (Chuka Umunna,Luciana Berger,Angela Smith,Mike Gapes,Gavin Shuker andAnn Coffey) quit Labour in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to form The Independent Group, laterChange UK.[23] He continued to serve as a Change UK MP after six of its 11 MPs left the party in June 2019.[24] He lost theNottingham East constituency to the Labour candidateNadia Whittome in the2019 general election, losing his deposit with 3.6% of the vote.[25]
In July 2020, Leslie was appointed chief executive of the Credit Services Association, the trade association of the UK debt collection and purchase industry.[26]
In February 2005, he married Nicola Murphy, aspecial adviser toGordon Brown, inWestminster;[27] the couple became engaged the previous year.[28] In April 2016, Nicola Murphy founded Labour Tomorrow, an organisation which funded Labour-connected activists and groups who oppose Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.[29][30]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forShipley 1997–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNottingham East 2010–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baby of the House 1997–2000 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 2015 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
