Andrew Mitchell MP - Who is he?

Andrew Mitchell was first elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Gedling between 1987 and 1997, and for Sutton Coldfield since 1997. He was re-elected in 2019 with a majority of 19,272.

The constituency of Sutton Coldfield is found immediately to the north of the city of Birmingham. This is an affluent area which contains a high number of Birmingham commuters. This area of England has been held by the Conservatives ever since 1885. Even in the Labour landslide year of 1997, the Conservatives managed to hold this seat with a majority of close to 15,000, reflecting how for many years, this has been one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

Andrew Mitchell was appointed as the UK’s Development Minister in October 2022 by Rishi Sunak. He attends cabinet. He previously served as Secretary of State for International Development in the Cabinet between 2010 and 2012.

Following the appointment of David Cameron, now Lord Cameron, as foreign secretary, Mitchell was confirmed to be the most senior elected official at the Foreign Office. He delivers statements and answers urgent questions in the House of Commons in this capacity, with Lord Cameron taking questions in the upper chamber.

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Mitchell was the Government Chief Whip briefly in 2012 before resigning in what became known as the ‘plebgate’ controversy. This related to an argument that Mitchell had with a policeman as he rode his bike out of the gates of Downing Street. Mitchell denied using the word ‘pleb’ in the argument, but resigned amidst continuing bad publicity over the affair. It later became the centre of a libel dispute.

Mitchell was previously Under Secretary of State for Social Security in John Major’s government between 1995 and 1997. He has spent well over half his life as a Member of Parliament.

Born in 1956, Mitchell was educated at Rugby School and Cambridge University, where he studied history. He was elected as President of the Cambridge Union in 1978.

After University he served in the Army (Royal Tank Regiment) before joining Lazard’s Bank.

Mitchell is married with two daughters. He is the son of the former Conservative MP, Sir David Mitchell.

He backed Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. However in 2022, following the ‘partygate’ affair, he told the prime minister in the House of Commons chamber that he no longer enjoyed his support.

In 2020 and 2021, he was very critical of the government’s approach to Yemen and its reduction in foreign aid spending.

According to the Register of Members Interests, Mitchell had a large number of well remunerated outside directorships. He is a senior adviser to Investec bank; a consultant with Ernst & Young; an adviser to Kingsley Capital Partners (a private equity and venture capital firm); and an adviser on African matters to the investment bank, SouthBridge.

Andrew Mitchell is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on the Friends of Syria; Rwanda; St Helena; Anti-corruption and Responsible Tax; and War Crimes. He is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Iran; and Srebrenica.