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Christopher Pincher

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Preceded by
  
Brian Jenkins

Occupation
  
IT consultant

Majority
  
6,090 (13.1%)

Name
  
Christopher Pincher


Nationality
  
British

Role
  
British Politician

Political party
  
Conservative

Party
  
Conservative Party

Christopher Pincher httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Born
  
24 September 1969 (age 54) Walsall, Staffordshire, England (
1969-09-24
)

Alma mater
  
London School of Economics

Education
  
London School of Economics and Political Science

Profiles

Tamworth conservative christopher pincher victory speech live in general election 2015


Christopher John Pincher MP (born 24 September 1969 in Walsall) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamworth since the 2010 general election, when he won the seat from the Labour Party. He first fought the seat in 2005.

Contents

Christopher Pincher Christopher Pincher

Christopher pincher pre budget 2013


Before Parliament

Christopher Pincher grew up in Wombourne, Staffordshire, and has been a member of the Conservative Party since 1987, having been politicised by the 1984–85 miners' strike. He was deputy director of the Conservative Collegiate Forum, followed by chairman of Islington North Constituency Association. He was tipped as a future cabinet member ahead of the 1997 general election, in which he ran for Parliament for the newly created safe Labour seat of Warley, in Sandwell; he came a distant second, with 24% of the vote.

Christopher Pincher was a member of Iain Duncan Smith's successful campaign for the party leadership in 2001. He failed to win election to Parliament for Tamworth in 2005, gaining a 2.8% swing from Labour, but losing vote share to Veritas and the UK Independence Party. Despite Brian Jenkins clinging onto the seat, Christopher said he had won the arguments, after campaigning for more police and school discipline. He was re-selected to fight the seat at the next election.

While a candidate, he campaigned against the decision to close Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School, which had been earmarked for closure under Building Schools for the Future, and called the 2009 decision to keep the school open a "victory for people power". He also successfully put pressure on Persimmon to resume and complete construction of the half-built Tame Alloys Estate in Wilnecote. In 2008, Pincher called for efforts to improve visibility at the site at an accident blackspot in Hopwas.

Member of Parliament

He won election to Parliament at the 2010 election on a 9.5% swing: taking him to 45.8% of the vote and a majority of 6,090 or 13.1%, over 14-year incumbent Brian Jenkins. In his first ten months as an MP, Christopher had the second-highest House of Commons attendance rate of the West Midlands' 57 MPs, after James Morris. In his first year, he spoke in 94 debates: top amongst Staffordshire's eleven MPs.

He has campaigned against the building of High Speed 2, which is planned to run past the outskirts of Tamworth. He has defended residents from accusations they were "Nimbies" and has called the HS2 business case 'significantly flawed'. In December 2010, he said any route via Mile Oak or Hopwas was "just not acceptable". Soon after, the route via Hopwas Ridge was rejected: a move welcomed by Pincher and campaigners.

He endorsed closer links with Latvia after meeting Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis in January 2011. He has since met with the Latvian ambassador with a view to setting up an all-party parliamentary group for Latvia.

He has opposed moving the clocks permanently forward an hour to Central European Time.

In 2011, he was a member of the special Select Committee set up to scrutinise the Bill that became the Armed Forces Act 2011.

After the 2011 AV referendum, he urged a continuation of the coalition government

He has lobbied in Parliament for the Olympic Torch to pass through Tamworth during the 2012 torch relay. Tamworth lies between Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent, which were both announced as stops in June 2011, making a journey through Tamworth a possibility.

In 2013 he organised a campaign to get local people to knit "Beanie Hats" for soldiers of the 3rd Battalion (The Stafford's) of the Mercian Regiment, for their pending deployment for Afghanistan. Later in the same year he helped organise the Tamworth Support our Soldiers (TamworthSOS) campaign, which saw thousands of welfare boxes sent to the same soldiers in-time for Christmas 2014.

He has called for a full debate in Parliament on ensuring that mental health services are given focus as part of £3bn increase in spending on the NHS.

In the 2015 General Election, Christopher Pincher was re-elected with an increased majority of 11,302, polling 23,606 votes, 50.04% of the votes cast and a further 4.3% swing from Labour.

In February 2016 he prompted "roars of laughter on both sides of the House" with the following exchange:.

Jeremy Corbyn: Last week – like him – I was in Brussels, meeting with heads of government and leaders of European socialist parties, one of whom said to me…

Chris Pincher: Who are you?

References

Christopher Pincher Wikipedia