Introduction
Christopher James Skidmore FRHistS FSA (born 17 May 1981) is a British politician, author, and historian. He has served since 2010 as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, and since 2015 as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Early life
Skidmore was born on 17 May 1981 at Longwell Green in South Gloucestershire (then in the county of Avon), in the West of England. He became an active member of the Conservative Party in 1996.
Education
Skidmore was educated at Bristol Grammar School, a mixed independent school in the City of Bristol, Avon, south west England, before going up to Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 2002 with a first-class degree in Modern History (BA), and later as MSt.
Career
Skidmore worked for David Willetts and Michael Gove as an advisor, and served as Chairman of the Bow Group for 2007–08, before being appointed by another right-leaning think tank, Policy Exchange, as a Research Fellow.
After being selected to contest the marginal seat of Kingswood for the Conservatives in 2009, he was elected as its Member of Parliament in 2010, winning the seat from the Labour Party.
Skidmore served as a member of the Commons Select Committee on Health, leaving that committee on 17 June 2013 (being replaced by Charlotte Leslie), to sit on the Commons Select Committee on Education. He is also a member of the Free Enterprise Group of MPs, and along with colleagues co-authored After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012). The authors of Britannia Unchained claimed that "Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world". The Daily Mirror reported that Skidmore controversially defended the Government's austerity programme by claiming it hadn't left people "dying in the streets". He is a regular guest on BBC political programmes, such as The Daily Politics.
Skidmore was named by Conservative Home in 2012 as one of a minority of loyal Conservative backbench MPs not to have voted against the government in any significant rebellions.
Skidmore was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.
Fellowships
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2008)
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2010)
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (2014)