Christopher Fox, Baron Fox

Christopher Francis Fox, Baron Fox (born 27 September 1957) is a British Liberal Democrat politician.

The Right Honourable
The Lord Fox
Chief Executive of the
Liberal Democrats
In office
2009–2011
Preceded byChris Rennard
Succeeded byTim Gordon
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
11 September 2014
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born (1957-09-27) 27 September 1957
Surrey, UK
Political partyLiberal Democrats
Children1
Alma materImperial College London

Education and early career

Fox grew up in Herefordshire, attending Leominster Grammar School.[1] He went on to study at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in chemistry.[2] During his time at university Fox spent a year as President of the Imperial College Students' Union.[3][4]

Fox’s professional career began with engineering roles in the petroleum and nuclear industries. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at Tate & Lyle, before joining Smiths Group and, later, GKN, as Group Director of Communications.[5][6]

Fox served as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats (UK) from 2009 and 2011.[7] In this role he managed the party through the 2010 General Election and the beginning of the Cameron-Clegg Coalition Government. He has been credited with overseeing a major reorganisation of the party’s campaigns staff, moving the party out of its historic Cowley Street HQ to more modern offices on Great George Street, and introducing a new online election database system.[8]

Since 2017, Fox has been a patron of children's charity, WAVE Trust.[9]

House of Lords

Chris Fox was created a life peer as Baron Fox, of Leominster in the County of Herefordshire, on 11 September 2014, following nomination by Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.[10]

Since becoming a Member of the House of Lords, Lord Fox has taken an interest in policy relating to business, industry, science and technology.[11] From June 2015 he was a member of the Lords Science and Technology Committee, in July 2019 changing to be a member of the Economic Affairs Committee.[12][13]

In June 2017, Lord Fox was appointed Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the House of Lords.

A critic of Brexit, Lord Fox was one of several Peers to oppose the UK Government's post-referendum negotiations and legislative agenda.[14] In 2020, he described the Government's Internal Market Bill as "illegal".[15] In 2023, Fox led parliamentary opposition to the Retained EU Law Bill, leading to concessions from the government.[16]

He is Vice President of the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and an Executive member of the British-American Parliamentary Group.[17]

In May 2020 The Daily Telegraph reported that Fox had furloughed himself under the government financed COVID support scheme in his single employee company, Vulpes Advisory, which had a £100,000 cash balance, as well as claiming his £162 daily allowance for Lords Zoom video meetings attendance. The newspaper critically characterised this as a "double dip into the taxpayers' pocket", and some MPs said this was "milking the taxpayer".[18] Fox apologised for his "error in judgment" and promised to repay the furlough money.[19]

References
  1. "Lord Fox, of Leominster in the county of Herefordshire, introduced to House of Lords". Worcester News. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  2. ‘FOX’, Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017
  3. "Chris Fox". Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. "Our Imperial". Imperial College London. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  5. "Influencers | Lord Fox". Intelligence Forums. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  6. "Lord Fox, of Leominster in the county of Herefordshire, introduced to House of Lords". Hereford Times. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  7. "Lib Dem chief executive Chris Fox resigns". BBC News. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  8. Pack, Mark (27 August 2011). "Chris Fox, Lib Dem Chief Executive: four problems, four good responses?". Mark Pack. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  9. "Lord Chris Fox". WAVE Trust. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  10. "No. 60989". The London Gazette. 15 September 2014. p. 17978.
  11. Parliament (2023). "Lord Fox: Focus Areas".
  12. "Lord Fox - Parliamentary career". House of Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  13. "Lord Fox". UK Parliament. June 2017. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
  14. "Lord Fox: This Brexit deal is the worst industrial strategy possible". Politics Home. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  15. "Government suffers major defeat in House of Lords over Brexit bill". LBC. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  16. "UK government scraps plan to replace all EU laws by the end of 2023". Sky News. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  17. "Influencers | Lord Fox". Intelligence Forums. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  18. Mikhailova, Anna (20 May 2020). "Exclusive: peer 'milking' taxpayer by furloughing himself and claiming Lords allowance". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  19. Proctor, Kate (21 May 2020). "Lib Dem peer says sorry for claiming furlough and Lords allowance". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
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